Return to the Puppet Show
by Erin T. Aardvark
Summary: a strange coma-like sleep grips several young girls all over the world. Can the Impossibles solve the mystery? Sequel to "Strung Along," rated T as a precaution
1. Hello Dolly

_AUTHOR'S NOTE: Forgive the lousy title. It's the only thing I can think of (titles aren't my strong suit). Anyway this is the (sort of) long-awaited sequel to "Strung Along." Like the first, this one was mostly inspired by the game "PuppetShow: Souls of the Innocent" (which was the sequel to the game "Strung Along" was inspired by). As always, The Impossibles, Big D, and Winsome Witch (who appears a little later in the story) belong to Hanna-Barbera. Felicia is inspired and named after a character in the original game. Anyone else you encounter belongs to me._

_

* * *

_

It was an average June day in Megatropolis. The Impossibles were at Gracey's Department store, playing a personal appearance gig, and signing copies of their latest album for the fans. When they were done, they went upstairs to the fifth floor of the store, where the toy department was. Coiley's mother, Martha, had stopped by to do some shopping, and she brought his kid sister, Courtney, with her. She asked the boys to meet Courtney in the toy department when they took a break. Neither Courtney, nor Coiley, liked shopping with their mother (she tended to take forever), and Coiley didn't want his sister hanging around while the boys were signing autographs, in case the fans got out of control (and it usually wasn't a pretty sight when _that_ happened). So Courtney promised to stay in the toy department, and that's where the boys found her when they took five, staring at a display of porcelain dolls behind a glass case.

"I knew she'd be there," Coiley said. "Every time we come here, there she is, staring at that same doll."

"I heard that!" Courtney shouted.

"First it was that talking Princess Rainbow Crystal doll," Coiley said. "Now it's a two hundred fifty dollar one."

"I want it _sooooo_ bad, but Mom and Dad won't buy one for me," Courtney said.

"I don't blame them," Multi said, getting a look at the price tags that were around the dolls' wrists. "I wouldn't pay two hundred fifty for a doll, and some of these are marked even higher. But that's pretty standard for this type."

"How do you know?" Fluey asked.

"Windy collects porcelain dolls," Multi said, shrugging. She's got a china cabinet full of 'em in her room."

"Well, don't look at me, Court," Coiley said. "After the whole Princess Rainbow Crystal fiasco, I swore to myself I'd _never_ buy you another doll again! Besides, Mom and Dad said maybe they'd get you one for Christmas, or your birthday."

"But Christmas is six months away, and my birthday isn't until next February!" Courtney whined.

"Well, you know Mom and Dad won't buy it for you now," Coiley said. "They don't want you to get spoiled."

"I know," Courtney sighed. "But it's gonna take for_ever_ until I save up enough money to buy it myself."

"Like I said, don't look at me," Coiley replied.

"Don't look at us, either," Fluey said. "If it were a standard Barbie doll or something like that, okay, fine. But not one that costs two hundred fifty bucks."

After a few minutes, Coiley's mother arrived at the toy department, and they left. The Impossibles left as well, to get back to autograph signing and the like. There were still quite a few girls in line waiting for autographs.

"Something tells me we're gonna be here past closing time," Fluey said, shaking out his hand, and wiggling his fingers. This was how he prepared for signing autographs to keep his hand from getting cramped (though it didn't always work).

"I've said it before, and I'll say it again," Coiley shrugged. "Such is the price of fame!"

Fluey and Multi couldn't argue with that. At least the fans hadn't begun trampling each other, that was for sure! Luckily, they signed the last album two minutes before the store was set to close. Then, they gathered up their stuff, and left. Coiley dropped his friends off at their houses first, and then went back to his house (since he was the unofficial leader of the trio, he got to keep the Impossi-Mobile at his house when they weren't on tour). He walked inside and found Courtney setting the table for dinner.

"Hi," he said.

"Hi," Martha said, from the kitchen. "Calvin, do me a favor and help your sister set the table for dinner."

"Sure, Mom," Coiley said.

Just as they were finishing setting the table, Coiley's father, George Collins, walked through the front door.

"I'm home!" he called.

"Hi, Dad!" Courtney shouted, running straight for her father. Then she noticed he was holding something behind his back.

"Guess what, Courtney?" George said, before Courtney could say anything.

"What?" Courtney asked. By that time, Coiley and Martha had entered the living room.

"I've got a surprise for you," George said. Then, he pulled a large box out from behind his back, and handed it to his daughter. Courtney put the box on the floor, took off the lid, and let out an extremely loud shriek.

"It's a porcelain doll!" she shouted, pulling a doll out of the box. She had brown curls, and was dressed in a pink Victorian style dress and bonnet, and her eyes opened and closed, as well.

"She's even prettier than the one I saw at Gracey's!" she squealed. Then she jumped up and gave her father a huge hug. "Thank you, Daddy! Thank you, thank you!"

"George," Martha said, sounding a little exasperated. "I thought we agreed we weren't going to buy her one of those dolls from Gracey's until . . . . ."

"Hold it, a minute, Martha," George said. "I _didn't_ buy it from Gracey's. I got it from a toy store downtown. You know, the one that's a couple of blocks from the office?"

"But I thought the porcelain dolls they sold there were about the same price as the ones at Gracey's," Coiley said.

"Well, they got a new shipment in from Italy," George said. "The sign in the window was advertising them for only six ninety-nine, so I thought I'd look in. I figured these things would be pretty shoddy if they were selling them that cheap, but they're pretty well made, don't you think?"

Coiley couldn't argue with that one, but he still wasn't so sure this was for real.

But apparently, that sale was definitely for real, all right. Multi found out about it when he came home from taking Skittles out for her evening walk. He and his pup walked up the stairs and passed his older sister's room, as she was making room for something in her doll cabinet.

"Got a new doll, Win?" he asked.

"Yep," Windy said, showing Multi her latest addition to her collection. This doll was a blond haired, blue-eyed doll wearing a lavender Victorian style outfit.

"You know Dad's gonna flip out when he finds out," Multi said. "Especially if you put it on _his_ credit card, like you did the last three times you bought one of those dolls."

"No, I paid for this one myself."

"How? You can't afford to pay for one of these with your own money!"

"I was able to afford this one. I got it downtown at that toy store. They got a shipment from Italy, and they were on sale for seven dollars. I couldn't pass up a sale that good!"

"You couldn't pass up a sale, period, sis. How do you know it's not a cheap knock-off?"

"I've been collecting these dolls for eight years, Mark. I thought the workmanship was going to be shoddy at first, but it isn't."

"But why is it so cheap? I don't get it."

"Who cares? As long as Daddy doesn't get bent out of shape about it, which he won't, then there's no reason to worry."

Multi wasn't so sure about his sister's reasoning, but he decided to let it go for the time being.

Fluey wound up hearing about the doll sale as well. Phyllis had bought one herself on the way home from the office, and he was watching her putting it on display with some of her other toys she had collected.

"I still don't see how they can sell these so cheap," Fluey said. "Especially since some of the porcelain dolls at that store cost up to five hundred bucks."

"Well, I'm not one to look a gift sale in the mouth," Phyllis said. "Maybe whoever shipped them to that store made a typo in their suggested retail prices or something. I don't know how it works."

"Yeah," Fluey said, staring at the doll for a moment. "I don't know, though, there's something weirdly familiar about this doll. I just can't put my finger on it."

Phyllis rolled her eyes, and figured her brother had been watching one too many episodes of _The Late Night Fright Fest Double Feature_.

Around midnight, Fluey snuck down the stairs to the den to watch _The Late Night Fright Fest Double Feature_, which was almost a nightly ritual for him. Nobody understood how in the world he could watch those all night and not be a zombie by daybreak. The answer was simple enough. Fluey usually fell asleep halfway through the second feature. Fluey flipped on the TV and waited for the first movie to start. It was called _Demon Dollie_, which was basically about a Chatty Cathy doll rip off possessed by evil.

"I hope this isn't an omen," Fluey commented, considering the doll Phyllis had brought home earlier.

As Fluey was watching the movie, he suddenly heard a crash from upstairs, like something falling from a shelf. Fluey turned off the TV and went upstairs to investigate. He heard some weird noises come from Phyllis's room, so he slowly opened the door, and looked inside. He found his sister sleeping soundly, but on the bed with her was a mechanical creature with the head of a baby doll, and the legs of a spider. This weird creature then opened it's mouth slightly, and a strange blue substance was sucked from Phyllis's mouth into the creature's.

"Holy Mesopotamia!" Fluey gasped. The mechanical creature heard him, and looked toward him, just standing there. Finally, the spider creature jumped to the floor and smashed through Phyllis's bedroom window. Fluey ran inside to the window, and saw the spider thing crawling down the side of the house. Fluey then dashed downstairs and looked out the front door, only to see several other spider creatures racing down the streets.

"I've got to get my transformer and call the guys!" he shouted. He was just about to close the front door and head back upstairs, when suddenly, a hand clamped over his mouth, and he was dragged out of the house and into the night.


	2. Sleeping On the Job

_"CAAAAAALLLVIIIIIIIN!"_

Coiley was suddenly jarred awake after hearing his mother shriek like that. He was so startled, he actually fell out of bed and crashed to the floor. Then, without missing a beat, he dashed out of his room and down the hall to his sister's room, which was where Martha's shriek had originated. He found both his parents in Courtney's room, and they both looked extremely nervous over something.

"Mom, what is it? What's wrong?" he asked.

"Its Courtney," Martha said, trying (unsuccessfully) to hold back tears. "You . . . . you know how she's always up early . . . . before any of us can get up."

"Yeah, I don't think she knows the concept of sleeping in," Coiley said. "You know she gets up early to watch that detective show on channel eight."

"Well . . . . ." Martha said, but she couldn't go on. She was too overwhelmed. Coiley began to get a sick feeling in his stomach.

"Is . . . . is something wrong with Courtney?" he asked, nervously.

"Well, we don't know," George said. "When we realized she wasn't up yet, we decided to check on her, because we thought she _did_ grasp the concept of sleeping in. But then, you know she never misses that show, and she did today, so we came in to see if she was up yet, but we couldn't wake her up."

"Well, I think I know one way to get her up," Coiley said. He went back to his room and got his guitar.

"Hold your ears," he said to his parents. "I'm gonna really let 'er go."

George and Martha took a couple of steps back, and plugged their fingers in their ears. They knew what was coming. Coiley tuned his guitar, and then strummed out some ultra-sonic high notes. They had been known to crack concrete, and his parents wondered how in the world he wasn't able to wake the dead with those! And Coiley knew his sister would definitely not have been able to sleep through that noise. So imagine his surprise when he saw his sister was still sleeping soundly after that!

"Funny, I thought for sure that would work," Coiley said. "Something weird is going on here."

Coiley wasn't the only one having troubles. Over at Multi's house, a similar situation was brewing, only neither Multi, nor his father or stepmother were aware of it yet.

"Mark, do me a favor," Multi's father, Ken, said. "Go wake up your sister."

"Sure," Multi said. "Come on, Skittles."

Skittles barked, and followed her redheaded master up the stairs. Multi knew Windy was known to sleep until noon when she didn't have an early class at the community college. And, like any younger brother, Multi enjoyed giving his older sister a rude awakening (it's a sibling thing). First he knocked on his sister's door, lightly.

"Hey, Windy," he said. "Rise and shine!"

No answer. Multi then began banging on the door as hard as he could.

"_Windyyyyyy!_" he shouted. "Get up!"

Again, no answer. Multi had to resort to using Skittles.

"Go get 'er, girl!" he shouted, opening the door. Skittles then ran into Windy's room (not using her super speed), jumped on her bed, and began barking and licking her face. She (and Multi) knew Windy hated to be woken up this way (and it's why Multi did it), but it was the most effective way to get her up (as long as Multi was able to get a head start before Windy could clobber him). But Windy wouldn't wake up. No matter how loud Skittles barked in her face, or how much she licked her, Windy wouldn't budge.

"Okay . . . ." Multi said, slowly. "Looks like I'll have to break out the artillery."

Multi walked across the hall and over to the bathroom. He filled a cup with cold water from the sink, and went back to his sister's room.

"I hate to do this to ya, Sis, but it's time to get up!" he shouted, and he doused his sister with the water, figuring if that didn't wake her up, nothing would.

And it didn't.

"Huh, this is really weird," Multi said.

"Mark!" Ken called from downstairs. "What's taking you two so long up there?"

"It's Windy, Dad!" Multi called back. "She won't wake up!"

"What do you mean she won't wake up?" Ken asked, coming up the stairs.

"I tried everything I could think of, but I can't get her to wake up," Multi said, shrugging.

"Windy," Ken said, grabbing his daughter by the shoulder and shaking her, gently. "Come on, Windy, you can't sleep all day, you know!"

Still no response from Windy. Skittles began whimpering. Something definitely wasn't right, and Multi knew it. Before he could do anything, the doorbell rang. Multi raced down the stairs and flung open the front door, finding Coiley standing on the stoop.

"Multi, we've got trouble," he said. "My folks can't get Courtney to wake up, and . . . . ."

"And I couldn't get Windy to wake up, either," Multi said. "Something weird's going on."

"Right," Coiley said. "Let's go pick up Fluey and . . . . ."

But before Coiley could go on, the television screen in the Impossi-Mobile's dashboard began to beep, signaling a transmission coming in. Coiley activated it, but, for some reason, he couldn't seem to clear the static.

"Boys, this is the chief," Big D's voice said.

"What's up, chief?" Coiley asked.

"Quite a lot," Big D said, and the two Impossibles noticed he sounded a little on edge. "Is Fluid with you two?"

"No, we were just on our way over to your place to get him," Coiley said.

"I was afraid of that," Big D said.

"What do you mean, chief?" Multi asked. "And how come there's no picture? Is something wrong with your desk console?"

"I'm calling from home," Big D said. "I have an apparatus there that transmits audio only, and no sound. But never mind that now. I need you two to come over here immediately. I'll explain more when you get here."

Coiley signed out, and threw a quick glance at Multi. Multi knew what his blond friend was thinking. Big D had sounded nervous, and that was never a good sign. Immediately, the boys and Skittles raced to Big D's house, and knocked on the door. It opened a few seconds later, and the boys saw Big D standing there, and right away, they understood why he had sent the transmission as audio only. He looked terrible. He was wearing a bathrobe, his hair was disheveled, and he looked like he was about to have a nervous breakdown any minute. Coiley and Multi didn't know what to say at the sight.

"I know what you boys are thinking," Big D said, as he stepped aside and allowed the boys and Skittles to come in. Skittles whimpered, jumped out of Multi's arms and into Big D's. She knew when someone needed her services, even if they didn't know themselves.

"You're used to seeing me have myself in order," Big D went on, scratching Skittles behind the ears.

"So what's going on, chief?" Coiley asked.

"I'm not entirely too sure," Big D said, and he began pacing the floor, still scratching Skittles's head. "Usually, Phyllis is already up in the morning before I am. When I got up this morning, I found her door open, but she was still asleep. I tried to wake her up, but no matter what I did, she wouldn't wake up. Then, I decided to get Fluid, thinking he could help me. He wasn't in his room, and I figured he was up watching those late night horror movies again. Phyllis and I have found him on the couch asleep with the television on too many times to count. You can imagine my shock when I found he wasn't in the den."

"Maybe he went to investigate on his own," Coiley suggested.

"I thought that, as well," Big D said. Then he reached into the pocket of his robe and pulled out a handheld black box with two buttons on it. One button was green and the other was blue.

"At least until I found his transformer still in his bedroom," Big D said. "I tried to contact him, but he didn't answer."

"It's not like Fluey to just up and leave without taking his transformer with him," Multi said.

"Unless something happened," Coiley said. Skittles immediately jumped down to the floor, and zoomed upstairs. Coiley, Multi, and the chief followed. They caught up with her in Phyllis's bedroom, sniffing around a bit, and finally, she went into her pointer routine (_poing!_), pointing out the window.

"Jumpin' jukebox!" Coiley shouted, running over. "Looks like someone might have broken in."

"No, broken out," Multi said, looking out the window. "There's broken glass outside. If someone broke in, the broken glass from the window would be here, inside."

Skittles barked again, and once again, did her pointer bit, indicating something on the floor. Multi and Coiley ran over and found a decapitated doll laying on the floor.

"This is weird," Multi said. "This doll's missing it's head."

"It kind of looks like the one my dad gave Courtney yesterday," Coiley commented.

"Yeah, and the one Windy got yesterday, too," Multi said. "Wait a minute . . . . ."

"What?" Big D asked.

"Chief, Coiley and I are having the same problem with our sisters that you're having with Phyllis," Multi went on. "Tell me, do you know where Phyllis got this doll?"

"Downtown yesterday afternoon," Big D said. "She said something about a big sale."

"I see the connection," Coiley said. "My dad bought my sister one of these dolls from a toy store downtown yesterday, too."

"And so did my sister," Multi said. "I don't know what it has to do with Fluey's sudden disappearing act, chief, but we'll find out!"

Immediately, Multi and Coiley pulled out their transformers, pushed the buttons on them, and switched over to their superhero forms. Skittles barked three times, back flipped, and turned into her super identity as Impossi-Pup.

"Rally ho!" the boys shouted, and they raced out to the Impossi-Mobile.


	3. Hunting Clues

The boys drove to Coiley's house as fast as they could. When they got there, they were met by an odd smell.

"What in the world _is_ that?" Multi asked, stifling a cough. "Smells like . . . ."

"Cigarette smoke," Coiley groaned. "Dad! Where are you?"

"In the kitchen!" Coiley's father called out. Multi, Coiley, and Skittles walked into the kitchen and found George pacing the room, nervously lighting a cigarette. There was an ashtray on the counter, and several discarded cigarette butts in it, and even more on the counter around it.

"Dad, I thought you quit smoking," Coiley said.

"I know, I know," George said, snuffing out the cigarette he was smoking, and proceeding to light another one. "But I _do_ have one whenever I'm _really_ worried about something."

"I can understand that," Coiley said. "But we're gonna solve this. Come on, Multi!"

And with that, Coiley and Multi ran into Courtney's bedroom. Martha was practically a basket case. Impossi-Pup sniffed around the room, and jumped up onto Courtney's bed, pointing at something.

"Good girl, Skittles," Multi said, running over. Then he saw Courtney sleeping with a headless doll. "Hey, Coiley, look at this. Another doll with no head."

"And look at this," Coiley said. "A hole in the window."

"Oh no . . . . ." Martha started.

"Don't worry, Mom," Coiley said. "We think whoever broke the window did it to get out. Not to come in. Come on, Multi. We'd better check your house for anything similar!"

"Right," Multi said, and the boys and Impossi-Pup were off, taking Courtney's doll with them, just in case they needed it for evidence or something. A short time later, they arrived at Multi's house, and immediately raced up the stairs.

"I didn't notice it at first," Multi said, picking up yet another headless doll from the floor. "And there's also another hole in the window."

"Wait a minute, Multi," Coiley said. "Look, inside that doll's neck."

"Hollerin' hi-fi's!" Multi shouted. There was a stamp inside the doll's neck, which pictured a theater mask sitting on top of a gear of some kind, with two keys crossed behind them.

"It . . . . . it's the logo from that old puppet theater we investigated in Austria," Multi said.

"Right," Coiley said. "And there's the same stamp inside Courtney's doll. We'd better head back to Big D's place and check Phyllis's doll!"

Multi agreed, and the threesome dashed for the Impossi-Mobile, and burned rubber to Big D's house. Once they arrived, they explained to Big D what they found out.

"We need to check that doll right away, chief," Coiley said. "We think we're onto something."

The boys immediately ran to the second floor, and found the doll right where they had left it on the floor. Multi picked it up, and looked inside the neck.

"Just as I thought," he said. "The same stamp of the Puppet Master."

"Puppet Master?" Big D repeated.

"You remember chief, from that time you sent us to Austria to investigate a string of mysterious disappearances linked to a modeling agency?" Coiley asked. "And it turned out to be an old puppet theater that was said to be haunted?"

"Ah yes," Big D said, nodding. "Then you boys fed me a ridiculous story about this puppet master character who was . . . . what was it? Puppetizing these young women you said?"

"Yeah," Multi said. "But he was puppetizing them for his daughter, and . . . ."

"I didn't believe it when you boys told me about it then, and I don't believe it now," Big D said. "I suggest you boys go to the store where these dolls were purchased and find out more there."

"Right, chief," Coiley said, and he and Multi and Impossi-Pup took off.

Moments later, they arrived at the toy store in question, and asked the manager about their doll say from the day before.

"Darnedest thing I've ever come across," the manager said. "We got these crates from Italy, and inside were these dolls. The letter that came with them said to sell them at six ninety-nine per doll, and I was thinking whoever made them could get a _lot_ more than seven bucks a pop for these things! I mean, they're practically works of art here."

"Or at least they were until this morning," Multi commented. "That doesn't tell us much, does it, Coiley?"

"No, it sure doesn't," Coiley sighed. "Any suggestions?"

"Only one. When dealing with the weird and supernatural, we need to go to someone who knows about the weird and supernatural. Danalleah should be at the office. She might know what to do."

Coiley agreed, and the boys went to the SSHQ building and headed for the mailroom, seeking out Fluey's girlfriend. They were a little surprised to find only a handful of agents there.

"Where is everybody?" Coiley asked once he and Multi reached the mail room.

"They called in sick," FG said. "Well, they didn't _really_ call in sick. But about half of them said their kids were sick or something."

"Uh huh," Multi said, nodding. "And were these agents that called in the agents that have daughters?"

"That's right," Danalleah said. "I don't know what's going on, but I don't like it. Something's up, I can sense it."

"That's what we want to talk to you about, Danalleah," Multi said. "It's like this . . . . ."

Both Multi and Coiley explained the entire story to the two girls (Shawn was up in Big D's office, filling in for Phyllis).

"I thought you told us the Puppet Master was dead," FG said.

"Right, but we think maybe his daughter is behind this," Coiley said. "Remember, she escaped the last time we tangled with her."

"And she _did_ seem to have this crush on Fluey," Multi pointed out.

"That makes sense," Danalleah said. "But how did the dolls lose their heads? And how could she be behind this weird coma-like sleep?"

"That's what we're still trying to figure out," Coiley said. "All we know is the dolls came from somewhere in Italy."

"I think I know who might be able to help us," Danalleah said. "We need to see Aunt Winnie!"

And with that, Danalleah, Impossi-Pup, and the two Impossibles went to the Impossi-Mobile, converted to Impossi-Jet, and flew off into the woods to see Danalleah's mentor/temporary guardian, Winsome Witch.

While the trio (well, quartet, if you include Impossi-Pup) made their way to the woods, Winsome Witch was stirring something in her cauldron.

"Let me see here," she said. "A dash of dungeon dust, two shakes of polyunsaturated cobwebs, and a smidgen of lint from a ghost's sheet . . . ."

Once Winnie added that ingredient, the cauldron exploded. KA-BOOM!

"Hmmm," Winnie said, once the smoke cleared. "Maybe I should have added a little more bat dust to _that_ one."

"Aunt Winnie!" Danalleah called, opening the front door to Winnie's cottage. "Are you here? We've got a problem!"

"A problem?" Winnie repeated, walking over. "What kind of a problem?"

"You'd better tell her, fellas," Danalleah said. "You know more than I do."

Multi and Coiley then explained to the good witch what had happened, and what they knew so far.

"All we know is the dolls came from Italy," Multi said. "But we don't know _where_ in Italy. Do you think you can help us figure it out, Winnie?"

"Oh, no trouble at all, boys," Winnie said. She then pulled out her magic wand, waved it, and a new cauldron appeared.

"Now then," Winnie said, "all we have to do is put in a cobweb from a vampire's cave, a couple of bones from a dragon's hind leg, and a pair of old shoes. Now, cook at three hundred degrees."

Winnie was waving her wand with each ingredient she listed, and they all went into her cauldron. Suddenly, a large cloud of smoke came out of the cauldron, and hovered over it.

"Now, we'll see where these dolls came from," Winnie said. An image in the smoke began to take shape, until it faded into what appeared to be a town that looked like it was straight out of the nineteenth century.

"Looks like Hasenpfeffer, Austria," Multi said.

"Except for that there," Coiley said. "Benvenuti a Giocattoli."

"That must be the town the dolls came from," Danalleah said. "Giocattoli, Italy."

"Yes, and you should go to the house there on the corner," Winnie said, pointing out a house in the smoke. "According to the spell, the woman who lives there, Alfreda Fettuccine, has a young daughter that's in the same coma-like sleep your sisters are in, boys."

"Okay," Coiley said. "Just one more thing, Winnie. Think maybe you could show us where Fluey is right now?"

"Of course, of course," Winnie said. "All I have to do is add a little clover leaf to the mix, and voila!"

The cauldron bubbled a little, and the town of Giocattoli faded out. Then, another image began fading in. This time, it was an image of some kind of dirigible, being piloted by a figure in a dark cloak. The two Impossibles couldn't make out this person's face at all. The scene shifted to a closer look inside. There was Fluey, sitting on the floor of the dirigible, a few feet away from the mysterious pilot. He was bound and gagged, and struggling to get loose.

"Spiraling spiderwebs!" Danalleah shouted with a gasp. "Oh, we have to go rescue him!"

"They're heading for Giocattoli themselves," Winnie said.

"But who's the pilot?" Multi asked.

Before Winnie could answer, the cauldron suddenly exploded.

"Darn it!" Winnie shouted. "It blew before the spell could tell me who was driving that flying contraption."

"We'll figure it out later," Multi said. "We've got to get to the bottom of his mystery first. So we'd better start with this Alfreda Fettuccine person."

"Thanks for the help, Winnie!" Coiley shouted, as he, Multi, Danalleah, and Skittles ran out of the good witch's cottage and back to the Impossi-Jet.

"You're welcome boys!" Winnie called, as Coiley started up the jet. "And good luck!"

Coiley put the Impossi-Jet into gear, and flew back toward the city. Multi grabbed his guitar and called the chief, on Big D's personal wrist communicator.

"We have a lead, Big D," he said. "We're heading for Giocattoli, Italy. There's a woman there named Alfreda Fettuccine. According to our friend, Winnie, Mrs. Fettuccine has a daughter who's in this same coma, and we also found out whoever kidnapped Fluey is taking him there."

"Very well, then," Big D said. "I'll find the necessary contact information and inform Mrs. Fettuccine of your arrival so she'll be expecting you."

"Do you want us to swing by your place so you can come with us, chief?"

"No, I don't think so. I'm not feeling up to the long trip. Good luck, boys. Over and out."

Big D signed off with Multi, and leaned back against the couch in his living room, pinching the bridge of his nose. He didn't know if he could handle this one. He was a nervous wreck. He was even more of a nervous wreck than he was during the Shadow incident. All he could do now was hope Multi and Coiley would come through.


	4. Return of the Spider Baby

The two Impossibles, Skittles, and Danalleah reached Giocattoli, Italy in record time. When they arrived, they found the place to be deserted.

"It's like a ghost town," Danalleah said.

"Just like Hasenpfeffer, Austria," Multi commented. Skittles began sniffing around, and then, she went into her pointer routine (_poing!_)

"Atta girl, Skittles," Multi said, walking over to where Skittles was pointing. Coiley and Danalleah followed.

"Looks like whoever lived here abandoned this place," Coiley said.

"Look at this," Danalleah said, picking up an object sitting on a newspaper. "It looks like a planet, or something along those lines."

"Check out this story," Coiley said, picking up the newspaper. "Luigi Linguine, puppet maker, and the proprietor of a toy shop here in Giocattoli, that once faced bankruptcy, is back in business. Linguine has not developed any new mechanisms for his puppets in years, but everything changed weeks ago, when the elderly toymaker's niece arrived in town for a visit, which is when the shop's turnaround began."

"Look at the other headline," Danalleah pointed out. "Predictions of doom fail to frighten townspeople."

"I don't like the sound of that one," Multi said, taking the paper from Coiley in order to see the other headline. "Madam Zuzu, owner of the town's fortune-telling shop has been cited once again for disturbing the peace. She has been seen drawing cryptic symbols and writing warnings on townspeople's homes, appealing to the residents to leave town as soon as possible. Madam Zuzu claims she is trying to warn the town of impending danger, urging all inhabitants, especially those with female children, to evacuate."

"Do you think this might have something to do with the case?" Danalleah asked.

"I think so," Multi said. "Come on. Mrs. Fettuccine's house is right across the street from here."

The foursome walked up the front steps of the house and Multi pulled the chord to ring the doorbell. There was no answer. He tried again, but there still was no answer.

"This is weird," Multi said. "Big D contacted her right before we left. She's expecting us."

"We've got to find a way inside," Coiley said. "Hey, look over here!"

"Another broken window," Multi said. "And it looks like the window's open part of the way."

"But it's locked from the inside with a latch," Danalleah said, looking inside the crack of the window. "If we had something to open the latch, we could get in . . . . wait a minute, I know!"

Danalleah then opened her purse, and pulled a flower shaped stick pin from it. Then she stuck it inside the crack in the window, maneuvered it a bit, and lifted the latch, unlocking the window.

"There we go," she said, putting the pin back in her purse.

"Good work, Danalleah," Multi said. "Come on. Let's check this out."

The foursome then climbed in through the window, and found found a little girl sleeping, and a woman leaning over her, sobbing.

"Excuse me, ma'am," Coiley said. "But are you Alfreda Fettuccine?"

"Oh!" the woman shouted, startled. She immediately stood up, and turned toward our heroes.

"Sorry if we scared you, ma'am," Multi said. "But we had to climb in through the window because no one was answering the door."

"Are you the authorities?" the woman asked.

"Yes ma'am," Coiley said. "The Impossibles at your service. And this is our friend Danalleah. She's helping us solve this case."

"Oh, thank heavens," the woman said. "Please forgive me for not answering the door. I was too frightened. I'm Alfreda Fettuccine, and this is my daughter, Jane. I'm so terribly worried, she's been like this for two days, and the doctors don't know what's wrong! Everyone in town has fled, because of rumors of a curse coming from the old magician's castle."

"Sounds pretty mysterious all right," Multi said. "Would you mind if we looked around the room for clues, Mrs. Fettuccine?"

"Oh, not at all, not at all," Mrs. Fettuccine said. "My house is at your disposal."

"Thanks," Multi said. "Okay, gang, let's start checking this place out."

The group began searching the room, looking for anything out of the ordinary. Danalleah spied a music box on top of the dresser, and took it down.

"I think there's something inside here, fellas," she said, shaking the box a little. "But how do you open it?"

"There's a keyhole on the side of it," Coiley said. "Maybe that's how it opens."

Skittles barked a little, and dug something out of a drawer of the wardrobe. She picked it up in her mouth, and brought it over to Danalleah. It was a small key, and it looked like it would fit the music box.

"Good girl, Skittles," Danalleah said, as she started to wind up the box. Once fully wound, the little cherub on the box began playing his harp, and the lid opened, revealing a little brass ornament shaped like a fish.

"Hmm," Coiley said, picking up the fish. "I wonder where this goes?"

"Look over here, guys," Multi said, pointing to a table by the bed. "This drawer's locked, and some of the shapes are missing."

"_And_ they're interchangeable," Danalleah said, pilling out a crescent moon shaped ornament, then putting it back in it's place. "Something tells me we won't be able to unlock this drawer until all the little ornaments are in their correct positions."

"But how do we know what the correct positions are?" Coiley asked. Suddenly, Skittles barked, and pointed to something on the wall. It looked like a drawing of sorts, showing a square like pattern, with a fish on the top left corner, a lizard on the top right corner, a crescent moon on the bottom left corner, and a bird on the bottom right corner.

"You guys thinking what I'm thinking?" Multi asked.

"Yeah, these are the positions of the ornaments on the drawer," Coiley said. "And here's the lizard ornament, right here in the frame of this portrait."

"Now all we have to do is find the bird ornament," Multi said.

"I found it!" Danalleah called out. "Over here, on the night stand."

"Wait a minute," Multi said, walking over toward Jane. "She's sleeping with one of those headless dolls. And the Puppet Master's seal is stamped inside the neck of this one as well. This _can't_ be a coincidence."

"Look, there's a mechanical doll part in here that wasn't in the other dolls," Coiley said.

"Better hold onto it, Coiley," Multi said. "We might need it later. Hey, look at this jester puppet. It's missing an eye."

"Weird," Danalleah said as she put the doll part in her purse. Then she handed Multi the fish and bird ornaments, and Coiley handed him the lizard ornament. Using the drawing on the wall as a guide, he placed the ornaments in the correct slots in the drawer, which unlocked it.

"Nothing of interest in here," he said.

"Maybe not at first glance," Danalleah said, reaching past Multi. "But this powder compact might come in handy down the line."

"Well, I guess we're finished here," Coiley said, turning to Mrs. Fettuccine.

"All right then," Mrs. Fettuccine said. "I'll leave the door unlocked for you, in case you need to come back here to investigate further. Good luck to you."

"Thanks, ma'am," Multi said. "Come on, gang. We've got a lot of work to do."

The foursome left the house and Skittles began barking suddenly. Multi, Coiley, and Danalleah looked in the direction the puppy was indicating and saw a mechanical creature coming toward them. It had the head of a baby doll, and the body of a spider.

"Ew, what _is_ that thing?" Danalleah shouted.

"Holy horrific, it's back!" Coiley shouted.

"Now I'm positive the Puppet Master's daughter is behind all this!" Multi shouted.

"But what _is_ it?" Danalleah asked, as the spider thing skittered down the street.

"It's what Multi, Fluey, and I call a Spider Baby," Coiley explained. "It belonged to the Puppet Master's daughter. It was spying on us the last time we encountered it, and I'll bet anything it's spying on us again!"

"Come on!" Multi shouted. "We've got to follow it!"

The foursome ran down the street, and wound up losing the Spider Baby at a crossroad.

"Darn it, it got away!" Coiley shouted.

"Hey, look over here," Danalleah said. "It's the toy shop, but it's all boarded up."

"Evil is here," Multi said, reading the words spray painted on the boards. "Something tells me we'd better look into this."

"But how do we get in?" Coiley asked. "Boy, if only Fluey were here."

"Over here, fellas!" Danalleah called, and she ran to a guard, standing by a small shed or something like it. Skittles and the boys ran over and found a guard standing there, asleep.

"Hey, buddy, wake up!" Coiley shouted. Multi grabbed his shoulder and began shaking, but the guard wouldn't budge.

"It's no use," Multi said. "He must be under the same effects as the others."

"At least the door's unlocked," Coiley said. "Come on."

The foursome began looking around the guard's hut for anything that would help them. Finally, Coiley spotted something on a shelf, and stretched his arm up to get it.

"Hey, fellas, check this out!" he shouted. "A crowbar!"

"That will get us inside the toy shop for sure!" Multi shouted. "Let's go!"

"What do we do about the guard?" Danalleah asked.

"I guess we're just going to have to leave him here," Coiley said. "There isn't much we _can_ do."

Danalleah nodded and followed the boys and Skittles back to the toy shop. Multi took the crowbar from Coiley and began prying the boards loose. Once he got them off, he found a panel on the door with eleven red buttons on it. There were spaces for twelve buttons, and one was missing. Multi bypassed the panel for a moment, and pulled a lever to try to open the door, but it wouldn't budge.

"Rats," he said. "I have a feeling these buttons unlock the door, but one's missing."

Skittles suddenly barked, and pointed to a dripping drain pipe.

"I think Skittles just found the missing button," Danalleah said, picking the button up off the street. She handed it to Multi, and he placed it back in the door.

"How do we know which buttons open the door?" Coiley asked.

"I know!" Danalleah shouted, and she pulled the powder compact they found at Mrs. Fettuccine's out of her purse. She took the powder puff and dusted the buttons of the door. Fingerprints appeared on three off them.

"At least that narrows it down," Multi said. He began pushing the three buttons and pulling the lever until he got the combination he wanted, and the door opened. The foursome walked in carefully, and looked around.

"Hello?" Coiley asked. "Anybody here?"

"Mr. Linguine?" Danalleah asked.

"Doesn't look like anyone's home," Multi said. "Let's look around and see if we can find anything."

"Hey, Multi, Danalleah, look at this!" Coiley called. "The cash register's missing a handle. And look, an eyeball."

"Ew!" Danalleah shouted.

"Don't worry, Danalleah, it's only glass," Multi said, picking up the eyeball. "I'll bet it belongs to that puppet we saw at Mrs. Fettuccine's house. We'll go back and check later."

Skittles began sniffing around a little, and then tapped at a board in the floor. She began barking to get her friends' attention.

"A loose floorboard," Multi said. "Where's the crowbar?"

"Right here," Coiley said, handing it to his friend. Multi stuck the crowbar in between the cracks in the floorboard and pushed on it to get it to come up. Hidden underneath the loose board was the missing cash register handle. Before he could repair it, Skittles began barking again. The others ran toward her, and found a toy parrot, missing it's head and a wing.

"This is getting weirder and weirder," Multi said.

"Maybe we should look for the parts to this bird," Danalleah suggested.

"Good idea," Coiley said.

The foursome began searching the old shop for the pieces of that toy parrot. Coiley came across a door on the opposite side of the shop, and tried to open it.

"Locked," he said. "There's got to be a key somewhere around here."

"I don't know about the key, but I found the parrot's head," Danalleah said.

"Kind of creepy looking, isn't it?" Coiley asked.

"And here's it's wing," Multi replied. "And even weirder, a recipe for glue."

"Who'd want to make homemade glue?" Coiley asked.

"I don't know," Multi said. "Come on, let's fix the bird."

The three teenagers walked over to the broken parrot and got to work. First, Danalleah stuck the doll part they found at Mrs. Fettuccine's house into the bird, and then attached the head. Then, Multi attached the wing. The minute the parrot was repaired, it suddenly began to move. It opened it's mouth and a light was projected onto the wall.

"Hey, how 'bout that?" Coiley said. "A parrot projector!"

"Look!" Danalleah gasped, pointing to the wall. The boys turned to look, and saw an image of an old man repairing a doll. Then, a strange cloaked figure entered the shop, and showed the man two puppets: a jester and a baby doll.

"Hey, I think that's the cloaked figure that was piloting that flying contraption we saw in Winnie's spell!" Coiley shouted.

"And I'll bet anything the man is Mr. Linguine," Danalleah said.

The group continued watching as the two puppets danced about, seemingly on their own. Then, suddenly, the puppets picked up a mallet. The image shifted to the dolls dragging an unconscious Luigi Linguine through the door on the other side of the shop, then it shifted to that mysterious cloaked figure with the mallet. Finally, the scene shifted to a series of numbers: 749 261.

"What could those numbers mean?" Danalleah asked.

"I don't know," Multi said, thoughtfully. "Unless . . . . . wait a minute, I've got it! The cash register!"

Multi ran to the cash register, and installed its handle. Then he began pushing the buttons on it.

"If I can figure out the numbers on the cash register," he said, "I might be able to enter in that code on the wall, and unlock it."

"It's worth a shot," Coiley said.

It took a bit of trying, but Multi finally was able to enter the numbers into the cash register (it wasn't easy because the buttons on the register weren't labeled). Once he keyed in the correct sequence, the drawer in the cash register opened, revealing a key.

"This must be the key to that door," Multi said, grabbing it. "Come on!"

The group ran to the door, and Multi stuck the key inside the keyhole and tried turning it, but it was stuck.

"It won't turn," he said. "The lock's rusted."

"We'll have to oil it," Coiley said. "But with what?"

"I saw an old lamp at that guard's shed," Danalleah said. "It was broken and leaking oil. Maybe we could use that."

"Right," Multi said. "Come on, we'll have to find something to carry it in, though. And there might be something in the guard's hut."

The group left the toy shop for the moment and ran back to the guard's hut. The guard was still sleeping, so the foursome went inside the hut to have a look around.

"Ah ha!" Coiley shouted. "Look, guys, an empty oil can!"

"Good going, Coiley," Multi said. "Let's fill 'er up."

The group went to the outside of the shack, and Coiley held up the oil can to the leak in the lamp, filling it up with oil. Then they went back to the toy shop and oiled the lock. Multi was able to turn the key easily, then. Once he opened the door, he found a stairway leading to the basement.

"Ooooh," Danalleah moaned, backing away nervously. "It's so dark and creepy. Do we really have to go down there?"

"I'm afraid so," Multi said. "But if it makes you feel any better, Danalleah, you can stay up here with Skittles and search around a little more, and Coiley and I will check this out."

"Okay," Danalleah said, nodding. Multi and Coiley both took a deep breath, and started down the stairs.

"I really hope we solve this soon, Multi," Coiley said.

"So do I, Coiley," Multi replied. "So do I."


	5. More Mysteries

Multi and Coiley ventured down the stairway, and found themselves in what appeared to be a workshop of sorts. But they weren't the only ones down there. They where blocked off by a mechanical crab.

"Holy horrendous!" Coiley shouted. "How do we get past that thing?"

"We might have to dismantle it," Multi said. "But how?"

"I've got it," Coiley said. "We could use the crowbar, but I left it upstairs. Let's go!"

Multi nodded, and the two Impossibles made their way back up the stairs. Danalleah and Skittles looked at them oddly as they came back.

"Back already?" she asked. "What's down there?"

"A mechanical crab," Multi said, grabbing the crowbar. "Stand by. We'll be back."

Danalleah and Skittles looked at each other oddly, as the boys went back down the stairs. The crab was still there, reaching out with it's pinchers to grab Multi and Coiley. Multi began whacking at it with the crowbar until it fell to pieces.

"That oughta do it," Multi said. "Let's see what we can find down here."

The boys looked around the room, and spotted another one of those planet things Danalleah had found earlier. But that's not all they found.

"Hollerin' hi fi's!" Multi shouted. "Coiley, look over here!"

"Holy horrific!" Coiley shouted. "I think it's Mr. Linguine. Is he . . . ."

"Yeah," Multi said, grimly. "He is. Come on. We'd better finish up here and get back upstairs. We'll call the authorities about this when we get back to the Impossi-Jet."

"Right," Coiley said, as he grabbed a screwdriver from the floor. He used it to unscrew a valve from the wreckage of the crab.

"What are you doing that for, Coiley?" Multi asked.

"You never know," Coiley said, shrugging, and the two Impossibles went back up the stairs. Danalleah and Skittles were waiting for him, holding an old broom.

"What's that for?" Coiley asked.

"I found it while searching," Danalleah said. "You never know when a broom will come in handy for a witch."

"Good point," Multi said. "Come on, let's go back to Mrs. Fettuccine's house and check out that eyeball we found."

The foursome then headed back to the Fettuccine's. They found everything there to be the same as ever. Danalleah took the glass eyeball out of her purse and handed it to Multi. Multi walked over to the jester puppet on the night stand and inserted the eye into the socket. The minute it was inserted, the puppet's mouth opened, revealing another one of those weird planets.

"I wonder where these things go?" he asked, picking it up.

"Look up here," Coiley said, stretching his arm upward toward the top of the wardrobe. "Looks like a sun. It might go with those planet things."

"Maybe we ought to find that fortune teller the paper mentioned," Danalleah suggested, putting the two items into her purse. "She might know what's going on."

"Good idea," Coiley said. "Let's go!"

The group left the Fettuccine residence, and went down the street to locate Madam Zuzu's shop. They found it, but the door was locked.

"That figures," Coiley said. "I don't see a way to unlock it, though."

"It must be hidden," Multi said. He glanced over at a poster on the wall. "Hmm. I have a feeling it could be behind here."

Multi began tearing the poster off the wall, and then he grimaced as he saw a mess of cobwebs covering a strange apparatus behind it.

"Yeeccchhh!" he shouted. "Cobwebs!"

"I'll get rid of them," Danalleah said, picking up the broom she found. "I told you this broom would come in handy!"

Once Danalleah cleared the cobwebs, the group could see what was behind them.

"It looks like a model of the galaxy," Danalleah said. "Only it's missing three planets and the sun."

"Wait a minute," Multi said. "Those planet things. They must go in here, and so does that sun thing we found."

"It's worth a shot," Danalleah said, taking the items out of her purse. She stuck them into the galaxy, and then she noticed the planets moved.

"Hey!" she shouted. "I bet this is how we get in! We have to align the planets with the sun."

"That's not going to be easy," Multi said, moving a planet. "Some of the other planets move when you move one of them."

"We'll just have to maneuver them until we get it," Coiley said, and the group got to work.

It took quite a bit of maneuvering, but our heroes finally managed to align the planets, and the door opened. They walked into the shop, and looked around. Skittles began whimpering.

"I'm with you, Skittles," Multi said. "This place gives me the creeps!"

"Hey, look over there!" Coiley shouted. "It looks like the fortune teller in the newspaper."

"Madam Zuzu," Danalleah said. "And it looks like she's in a trance."

"Either that, or she's asleep," Multi said. "Which wouldn't surprise me."

"This is weird," Coiley said, examining a couple of items around the fortune teller. "This book says something about a castle having a new resident, and evil coming from the puppets."

"Not to mention this candle," Danalleah said. "It's burning much hotter than the others!"

"Maybe we should get back to Mr. Linguine's workshop and look around there some more," Multi said. The others agreed, and they were off.

The foursome went back to the toy shop, and down to Mr. Linguine's workshop, searching for anything in way of clues. Something caught Coiley's eye on the workbench and he picked it up.

"Funny place to keep charcoal," he said.

"That's not charcoal, silly!" Danalleah shouted, grabbing the burner. "It's pitch."

"Looks like charcoal to me," Multi commented.

"Well, when it's dry it does," Danalleah said, shrugging. "But when you get it wet, it gets all sticky, and it can be used for waterproofing, caulking, paving . . . ."

"And making glue?" Multi interjected.

"Yeah," Danalleah nodded.

"Hmmm," Multi said, thoughtfully. "Something tells me we might be needing that homemade glue recipe after all. Come on, gang!"

Our heroes then raced up the stairs, and Multi grabbed the glue recipe. Then he ran outside. Coiley, Danalleah, and Skittles followed. Multi kneeled down by the drain pipe, which was dripping.

"Danalleah, give me that burner," he said.

"What for?" Danalleah asked.

"I'm going to see if this homemade glue recipe actually works," Multi said. "I have a hunch we might need it a little further down the road."

Danalleah nodded, and then handed Multi the burner. He put it directly below the drain pipe, and let some of the rain water drip into it.

"Now all we have to do is heat it up," he said.

"I know," Coiley said. "Let's go back to the fortune teller's place. With all those candles surrounding her, we can use that to heat up the pitch."

"Or at least that one candle of hers will," Danalleah said. "Come on!"

The quartet raced back to Madam Zuzu's shop. Nothing had changed there, which didn't really surprise our heroes. Danalleah went over to her candles and put the burner over that hot one she had discovered earlier while the boys watched. Skittles began sniffing around. She found a book of matches laying on the floor, picked them up, and ran to her redheaded master, barking.

"Whatcha got there, girl?" Multi asked, taking the matches. "Good thinking, Skittles. These may come in handy."

"The glue's all ready," Danalleah said. She snapped her fingers and magically conjured a lid for the burner, to keep the glue from spilling. "Now what?"

"Now, we head for that castle on the hill," Multi said. "Since Mrs. Fettuccine mentioned a curse of some kind from a castle, and that looks like the only castle around here."

"Right," Coiley said. "And Madam Zuzu's notes said the castle had a new resident. I think we'll get all the answers we need there!"

"And hopefully find Fluey," Danalleah said. "I hope he's all right."

"So do we," Coiley said. "Come on! To the Impossi-Jet!"

Our heroes left the fortune teller's shop, and began running to where they parked their jet, only to find it torn to pieces. The hood was open, and pieces of the engine were scattered all over the street. Parts of the body had been torn from the jet's frame, crushed and dented, and strewn about in every direction imaginable.

"Oh no!" Danalleah shouted. "What _hap_pened?"

"This has Spider Baby written all over it," Multi grumbled. "Think you could fix it, Danalleah?"

"Well . . . ." Danalleah said.

"I don't think she should, Multi," Coiley said. "She could use up too much of her magic if she does, and I think she ought to save it for when we _really_ need it."

"You're right," Multi said. "I forgot about that. But we can't repair the Impossi-Jet ourselves. I don't know the first thing about building a car. Or a jet. Mike hasn't taught us all that much, you know."

"And even if we did, by the time we managed to get it back together, it might be too late," Coiley said.

"Wait a minute," Danalleah said. "Follow me, guys! I think I saw something we could use!"

The group then ran down the street, past the toy shop. There, they found a hot air balloon, and a sign advertising a flight to the castle of somebody named Lord Adrian.

"I think he's the magician Mrs. Fettuccine was talking about," Danalleah said. "This balloon could take us directly to the castle!"

"But there's one problem," Multi said. "Pieces of the balloon are missing."

"We'll just have to repair it," Coiley said. "Come on!"

The foursome ran into the balloon's basket, and looked around to see what needed to be done.

"How are we going to patch this hole in the hose?" Coiley asked.

"The glue!" Multi shouted, snapping his fingers. "Give me the burner, Danalleah."

"Here you go," Danalleah said. As Multi was patching the tear in the hose, Coiley, Danalleah, and Skittles began assessing the rest of the damage.

"We're also missing a valve to turn on the gas," Danalleah said.

"I got a valve right here," Coiley said, screwing the valve onto the gas tank. "I found it when Multi and I obliterated that mechanical crab."

Coiley then turned the valve, which started the gas. Then Multi took out one of the matches, struck it, and lit the burner. Immediately, the balloon began rising.

"All we have to do now is cut the rope, and we'll be airborne," Coiley said.

"Go to it, Impossi-Pup!" Multi said, picking up his puppy, and holding her up so she could chew through the rope anchoring the balloon. Once she chomped through, the group was airborne, and the wind carried them toward the dark, creepy castle in the distance.

"Multi?" Danalleah asked. "Once we reach the castle, how will we get down?"

"We'll cut the gas," Multi said.

"That must be the castle," Coiley said.

"Ooohhh . . . ." Danalleah shivered. "It's giving me chills already! Oh, I wish Fluey were here. I'd feel a whole lot better if he was."

Danalleah wrapped her arms around herself, nervously. She was worried about Fluey, she could barely think of anything else. She wondered if whoever had taken him was keeping him locked up somewhere in that horrible castle. Just the thought of it scared her half to death.

"I just know he's in there," she said. "Fluey _has_ to be in that castle. He just _has_ to! I hope that horrible person in the cloak hasn't hurt him."

"Don't worry, Danalleah," Multi said. "We'll get Fluey back safely. Nothing's going to stop us now!"

"Except for maybe that!" Coiley shouted, looking toward the sky.

Multi, Danalleah, and Skittles looked in the direction Coiley was pointing, and saw the sky had turned dark, and flashes of lightning were beginning to appear, as thunder crashed.

"Sizzling stereos!" Multi shouted. "We've got to do something!"

But before anyone could do anything, lightning struck the balloon, and it began plummeting.

"Tremblin' transistors!" Coiley shouted. "We're going down!"

"Abandon ship!" Multi shouted, grabbing Danalleah around her waist. Skittles barked, and jumped up onto her master's shoulder.

"Rally ho!" both Impossibles yelled in unison, and were about to use their powers to get out of the basket, but they weren't fast enough. The balloon crashed to the ground, and was wrecked nearly beyond recognition.


	6. Creepy Castle

Skittles wriggled her way out from under the wreckage. Then she stretched out, and sniffed around a little. She discovered her three friends sprawled out on the ground amid the wrecked balloon. She whimpered, and nudged Multi with her nose, until he groaned, and started to sit up. Coiley and Danalleah slowly began coming to their senses as well.

"Wow, what a landing," Coiley groaned.

"At least we're alive," Multi said, standing up.

"We won't be if we don't move out of the way!" Danalleah shouted, suddenly. The boys and Skittles looked toward where the teen witch was pointing, and saw some of the rocks on the cliff giving way. The foursome dashed out of the way in the nick of time, just as the rocks crashed to the ground, crushing the basket.

"That was _too_ close!" Coiley shouted. "Is everybody all right?"

"Yeah," Multi said.

"I think so," Danalleah replied. Skittles barked the affirmative.

"At least we landed close enough to the castle to walk to it," Multi said. "We'll have to figure out an alternative route back to town, though."

"Yeah, no way we can travel in the hot air balloon now," Coiley commented.

"Give me a hand moving these rocks, Coiley," Multi said. "I want to see if we can salvage anything out of this wreck."

The boys tried to move the rocks by using their powers, but they were too heavy. Then they tried the crowbar, but that didn't help, either.

"We need something longer," Coiley said. "Let's get back to this later. We've got more important work to do."

"Right," Multi said. "And maybe we'll find something to dislodge the rocks along the way. Let's go!"

The foursome then started making their way toward the creepy castle down the hill, in the distance. When they got there, they found the gates being guarded by a giant mechanical monster.

"Hopping horribles!" Coiley shouted. "Now what do we do?"

"If we can't get past him, then we'll go over him," Multi said. "Rally ho!"

Multi duplicated upward, but the mechanized monster merely swatted his duplicates right back down, smashing them flat before they could even reach the wall.

"Yipe!" the original Multi shouted, and he backed away slowly.

"Any other ideas?" Danalleah asked.

"Yeah," Multi replied. "Let's get out of here and plan a strategy."

"Hey, I think I found a way to dislodge the rocks," Coiley said. "Come on! Let's get one of those poles!"

Our heroes around to the side of the castle, grabbed one of the long, wooden poles laying by the castle wall, and went back up the hill to the balloon wreck. As they were walking, they saw a Spider Baby running up to the front gates. The mechanical monster scanned a badge it was wearing, and let it pass. A couple of other Spider Babies arrived soon thereafter, and it was the same procedure.

"Hmmm," Multi said. "It looks like those Spider Babies are showing the guard a badge to get in. We're going to have to be tricky on this one."

"You mean we may have to catch a Spider Baby to get the badge?" Coiley asked. "But those things are way too fast for us!"

"Come on, let's get back to the balloon," Danalleah said.

The group got back to the wreckage, and Coiley and Multi, using the pole, moved the rock. The boys began searching through the wreckage, until Coiley found something on the ground, underneath a sandbag.

"Hey, guys!" he called out. "We won't need to trap a Spider Baby after all!"

"What do you mean, Coiley?" Multi asked.

"When we crashed, we landed on one!" Coiley shouted, picking up a badge with the Puppet Master's logo engraved on it.

"Good work, Coiley," Multi said. "Come on. Let's get back to the castle with the badge!"

The group went down the hill and back up to the castle gates. Multi held up the badge for the monster to scan. Once it scanned the badge, it's eyes turned green, and it lumbered over to a wheel of some kind. He began turning it, and the gates started to lower, but he suddenly stopped.

"What happened?" Multi asked.

"I think he ran out of juice," Coiley said. "Let's check this out."

The foursome walked over to the mechanical monster, and opened a panel in his back. Sure enough, the inside of the monster was empty.

"Looks like he runs on coal," Danalleah said. "Or at least steam when you burn coal. And there isn't any around here."

"Think maybe he could run on wood?" Multi asked.

"I suppose so," Danalleah said, shrugging. "Why?"

"I've got an idea," Multi said. "Skittles, go back to the wreckage and bring us as many sticks and branches as you can find. And hurry!"

Skittles stood up on her hind legs, saluted her master, barked, revved up, and blasted off toward the remains of the hot air balloon. She returned about one second later, with a bundle of sticks in her mouth. She dropped them at Multi's feet, and barked.

"Good girl, Impossi-Pup!" Multi shouted, giving Skittles a well-earned scratch behind the ears. Then he gathered the sticks and stuck them into the back of the mechanized monster. Then he took a match from the match book, lit it, and threw it into the machine. Sure enough, that did the trick. The machine began turning the wheel again, until the drawbridge was lowered completely.

"Oh my . . . . ." Danalleah said, once she got a look at the castle.

"Wow," Multi replied. "It's pretty high up there, isn't it?"

"I don't even think we'd reach it, even _with_ our powers!" Coiley shouted. "Where's that broom, Danalleah?"

"I think I left it at Madam Zuzu's," Danalleah said.

"Well, then, we're just going to have to find another way in," Multi said, picking up his puppy. "Let's go, gang!"

The trio walked down a pathway until they got to a wall with a platform on it, and a puppet that looked like a bellhop.

"I think this might be an elevator," Multi said. "But it looks like the mechanism to make it work is broken."

"We'd better look around for something that'll fix it," Coiley said.

Multi put Skittles down so she could sniff about while the others searched. Danalleah managed to find a piece of paper with a drawing of that weird elevator on it, as well as a square stone with a weird carving on it.

"Hmm, I wonder what this is?" she asked. Then she stuck it in her purse. "Looks like a rune of some kind. I'd better hang onto it, anyway. Just in case."

Coiley was looking around the cavern when he found a little cache in the wall. Unfortunately, it was covered with roots.

"How are we going to get through there?" he asked.

"What have we got in our inventory?" Multi asked.

"Matches, a crowbar, a sandbag, and a stone rune thing," Danalleah said. "Oh, but wait a minute! Skittles, go back up to the wreckage. I think I saw an axe up there somewhere."

Skittles barked, took off, and returned moments later with an axe. Multi chopped through the roots and looked into that little cache.

"What the . . . ." he started.

"What's in there, Multi?" Coiley asked.

"Some kind of . . . . . weird light, or . . . . . _some_thing," Multi said. He pulled the lever on this weird contraption and the top part of the cache was illuminated. He pulled it again, and now the bottom half was lit.

"I don't know what it is, and I don't think I _want_ to know," Multi said. "But here's the lever to the elevator. Come on!"

Multi retrieved the lever, and stuck it into the elevator's mechanism. Once he did, one of the gears began turning.

"We'd better attach the belts to the gears to get them all to move," Coiley said.

"Good idea," Multi replied, and the trio got to work. Once everything was moving, the bellhop puppet suddenly came to life (as it were), and turned a crank. As he turned, an old fashioned cage elevator lowered.

"Going up!" Coiley shouted, as he and the others stepped into the elevator, and rode it up to the castle hall.

Once our heroes reached the hall, they found Spider Babies running into the hall through one vent and out the other. There was also a golden puppet that appeared to be riding a unicycle, taking weird tubes from the Spider Babies. There were tubes all over the place, connecting to a strange apparatus in the center of the hallway. Not one of our heroes knew what it was.

"Holy horrendous," Coiley said. "We'll never be able to sneak past them!"

"Maybe if we block the vents?" Danalleah suggested.

"No, I think all we need to do is block the vent those Spider Babies are entering through," Multi said. "If we block their exit, I'm sure they'll notice us."

"But how can we block the vent without them seeing us?" Coiley asked.

"It's up to you, Skittles," Multi said to his puppy. "Take the sand bag, and use it to block that vent those Spider Babies are coming out of."

Skittles saluted her master, took the sand bag, and zoomed over toward the vent. Then she stuffed it in tight, so it would take awhile before it would come loose. Then, she zoomed back over to her friends. The golden puppet on the unicycle rolled over to where the Spider Babies were entering with those tubes, and bent over as if it were taking a tube from the Spider Babies. When a Spider Baby didn't show up from the vent, the golden puppet rode the unicycle back around the room. Our heroes followed it to see where it was going. They found it stopped by a strange device.

"What _is_ this thing?" Coiley asked.

"Beats me," Multi said. "But I don't think I want to know. Come on. I think I saw a staircase over here."

The foursome then left the hall, and went through a doorway, locating a staircase. They climbed up, and found another wing of the castle, littered with odd puppets. Then, they saw a Spider Baby watching them. It hurried down the hallway as fast as it could.

"That thing's so fast," Danalleah said. "We'll _never_ catch it!"

"I'm not going to worry about that Spider Baby now," Multi said. "Let's take a look around here and see if we can find anything useful."

The others agreed, and began their search. Coiley walked over to a strange tank of water and looked inside.

"This is just about the weirdest thing I've ever seen," he said.

"What?" Multi asked, as he, Danalleah, and Skittles wandered over.

"A mechanical fish," Coiley said.

"Ew," Danalleah grimaced. "Kind of creepy, isn't it?"

"And what's with this balloon?" Multi asked. "There's a key tied to the bottom of it, and it's also tied to that fish. I'd like to get that key, but how?"

"Maybe we can sink the fish and raise the balloon," Coiley said.

"How?" Danalleah asked.

"I don't know," Coiley said, shrugging.

"Well, we'll figure it out later," Multi said. "Come on, gang. Let's keep moving."

The group went down a hallway, and come to two doors. Multi walked up to the door to the left, and opened it.

"Wow," he said. "I think I figured out why those dolls were selling so cheap! Take a look at this!"

"It looks like a factory," Danalleah said.

"This is just getting weirder and weirder," Coiley said. "And we still haven't found a trace of Fluey!"

"I hope we find him soon," Danalleah said. "I'm getting an awful feeling something's happened to him."

"I'm sure he's all right, Danalleah," Multi said. "You can't keep Fluey down long."

"I hope you're right," Danalleah said.

"Come on," Coiley said. "Let's check this place out."

Skittles sniffed around, and then suddenly ran down a flight of stairs, barking. The other three followed her, and caught up with her, as she did her pointer routine (_poing!_)

"Good girl, Impossi-Pup," Multi said.

"Looks like part of a bridge fell on this conveyer belt," Danalleah said.

Multi duplicated himself to see if he and his Multis could lift the bridge, but it was too heavy for them, and for Coiley as well.

"We're going to have to find another way to lift it," Coiley said.

"Don't look at me," Danalleah said. "I wouldn't be able to lift that thing even _with_ my magic!"

"That looks like part of a crane there," Multi said. "If we can find the hook, maybe we could use that."

"I think I saw the crane controls over here," Coiley said, and he started springing up the stairway to another part of the factory.

The foursome followed Coiley back up one of the sets of stairs, and over to the controls.

"Wouldn't you know it," Multi groaned. "It's missing a button!"

"Come on," Danalleah said. "Let's look in the other room. Maybe we'll find the missing hook and button in there."

The others agreed and left the factory to search the other room.

"Figures," Coiley groaned. "The handle's missing. I'd drill through it, but I don't want to call attention to us."

Skittles barked, raced back into the factory, and returned shortly with a handle in her mouth.

"Good work, Skittles," Coiley said, sticking the handle on the door, and opening it.

"Frantic free falls!" he shouted. The door led outside the castle. Danalleah found a drawing on the wall. It was of a castle, and it had several hexagon shapes going toward the opposite turret.

"Oh, I think I see," she said. "The turrets are separated by a drawbridge. And . . . . I think this puppet here activates it."

The puppet Danalleah had indicated was sitting on a bicycle. Multi bent down to further investigate.

"Well, I found the crane hook at least," he said. "And the puppet's also missing a bike chain. It won't be able to pedal without it."

"Great," Coiley groaned. "Another missing item we have to look for."

"Not necessarily," Multi said. "I can bridge this gap easily. But we still have to find the missing button that operates the crane. Let's split up. Skittles and I will take the hook and fix the crane, and then we'll look around there a little more for the missing crane button. Coiley, you and Danalleah go back to the hall where we found that crazy fish, and look around there again, to see if it's there. We'll meet back at the crane controls."

Coiley and Danalleah nodded, and they left for the hallway. Multi and Skittles returned to the factory. As Multi attached the hook to the crane, Skittles sniffed around the conveyer belt, where she found the door handle.

"Any luck, girl?" Multi asked once he was finished. Skittles whimpered and shook her head. "That's okay, girl. Maybe Coiley and Danalleah had better luck. Come on. Let's go see."

Multi and Skittles climbed up the stairs and went into the control room. Danalleah and Coiley joined them shortly thereafter.

"Any luck?" Multi asked. "We couldn't find that darn button."

"None," Danalleah sighed. "That button just wasn't anywhere here."

"Maybe it's in another part of the castle," Coiley said.

The foursome left the factory and went out onto the balcony.

"Do your stuff, Multi," Coiley said.

"Right," Multi said. "Rally ho!"

Multi then duplicated himself forward, creating a bridge from the balcony to the castle's second turret. Coiley and Skittles crossed easily. Danalleah transformed herself into a bat, and flew across without any difficulty, either. Once they were all across, Multi retracted his duplicates, and Danalleah transformed back into her human form.

"Come on!" Danalleah shouted. "I'm getting a feeling we'll find something inside!"

The boys nodded, and they entered the turret through a door. Once they entered, they found something all right, sprawled out on the floor of the empty room.

"Oh my gosh!" Danalleah shouted. "Fluey!"

Immediately, our heroes ran over to their dark-haired friend, laying on the floor. He didn't look like he was hurt, but it appeared he was asleep.

"Fluey, wake up, it's us!" Coiley shouted, shaking Fluey's shoulder.

"Please, Fluey, _please_ wake up!" Danalleah yelled, close to tears. "Why won't he wake up?"

"Holy horror movies!" Multi gasped, suddenly. "I . . . . I think he's in the same coma-like sleep our sisters and Jane Fettuccine are in!"

"Oh no!" Danalleah cried. "Oh, we _have_ to find out how to wake him up!"

"Unfortunately, my dear, you'll _never_ wake him up," a voice said from seemingly out of nowhere. The group looked up, and found that mysterious cloaked figure entering the room through a staircase in the floor. The figure came closer to them, and Coiley and Multi gasped as they got a good look at the figure's face. It was a young woman with long jet black hair, and green eyes. She was also wearing half of a white mask (a la _Phantom of the Opera_) that hid half her face, but the group could see burn scars on her neck. Right away, Skittles and the boys knew exactly who this strange figure was.

"It's you!" Coiley shouted. "I knew it! The Puppet Master's daughter, Felicia!"

"Hello, boys," Felicia said, coming closer toward our heroes. She grabbed Fluey by the back of his collar, and wrenched him away from Danalleah, nearly throwing him across the room.

"I thought you had turned into a living puppet," Multi said.

"I did," Felicia said. "But, I managed to find a way to turn myself back into my human form. Though unfortunately, it brought back the scars from the fire that destroyed my face. You may have foiled my plans the last time we met, but this time, you're too late! I've finally found what I've been looking for!"

"What's that?" Coiley asked.

"The secret of everlasting beauty, you fat fool!" Felicia shouted. "It was hidden here a very long time ago by Lord Adrian, a very, _very_ wicked sorcerer, indeed."

"Sounds like your kind of man," Multi commented.

"Heh," Felicia said. "Don't make me laugh. It's too bad my scarred appearance requires the souls of so many girls to rejuvenate. Their souls will never return to their bodies, but that's just a small price to pay. Now I'll finish what Lord Adrian had started and restore my beauty."

"Wait a minute, we're not going to let you . . . ." Coiley started, but before he could finish, an iron gate crashed down, blocking our heroes off. Felicia laughed, and walked over to Fluey, lifting him off the floor as if he weighed no more than a doll.

"I have my handsome little doll's soul as well," she said. "I didn't want to take it from him, but he left me no choice. He just wouldn't cooperate. Say goodbye to him, children. Since I'm in possession of his soul, he'll be mine forever!"

Felicia then cackled madly and went down the stairway, taking Fluey with her.

"We've got to follow her!" Danalleah shouted.

"How?" Multi asked. "We can't move these bars, and they're too close together. Skittles can't squeeze through such a tight space."

"There's no lever or a switch that activates these bars," Coiley said. "At least none that I can see. Other wise, I'd just stretch my arm out and activate it, but I don't think I'd be able to fit it through, anyway."

"And I wouldn't be able to do squeeze out in my bat form, either," Danalleah sighed. "Oh, what can we do?"

"I don't know," Multi said with a sigh. "I just . . . . . don't know."


	7. Puzzling Puppets

Coiley, Multi, Danalleah, and Skittles stood there for awhile, trying to figure out how on earth they could continue.

"We can't turn around and try to find another way in," Multi said. "There _is_ no other way in!"

"No way I can lift the bars myself," Coiley said. "The spikes are dug in too deep."

Skittles whimpered, and pawed at the ground. The tiled floor was too thick for her to dig through. As she was pawing, she suddenly realized some of the hexagons were loose.

"What the . . . . ." Multi started, as he noticed this as well. He picked one up and looked at it. "Call me crazy, but I think I have it."

"What?" Coiley asked.

"This is a long shot," Multi said. "But check under these loose tiles for something . . . . _any_thing! Felicia might have overlooked something here."

The foursome got to work picking up the loose tiles, trying to figure out how exactly this would lift the gate.

"Look!" Danalleah shouted, lifting one of the tiles. "A hidden button in the floor!"

"Push it, Danalleah," Multi said. Danalleah nodded, and pushed the hidden button. Once she did, the gate raised.

"Hey, it worked," Coiley said. "Come on! We've got to find Felicia and stop her!"

The foursome then ran down the stairway in the floor, and found themselves behind yet another locked iron door.

"Oh brother," Multi groaned. "Why do I have a feeling the key to this door is in that fish tank?"

"That means we have to go all the way back to the other tower and get it," Coiley groaned.

"We might have to go back there anyway," Danalleah said, walking over to a window. "I found the missing crane button."

"Do we still have the crowbar?" Multi asked.

"Yeah, why?" Danalleah asked, opening her purse. She had cast a spell on the crowbar to shrink it so it would fit in her purse. When she took it out, she magically enlarged it before handing it to Multi.

"Anything that's boarded up is just asking to be investigated," Multi said, as he pried the boards from another window. Then he grimaced.

"Eeesh!" he groaned. "I think I've just found the dungeon!"

"I wonder how long those guys have been down there?" Coiley asked, looking at the skeletons that were chained to the walls.

"Well . . . . ." Multi sighed. "You up to some digging, Skittles?"

Skittles barked. Skeletons or not, she had work to do, and she was the only one who could fit through that little window. She crawled into it, and began sniffing around for anything useful. She finally came up with some sort of tool. It looked somewhat like a screwdriver, but it had a sharper point on it.

"What is it?" Danalleah asked.

"I . . . . think it's an ice pick," Coiley said.

"No, it's an awl," Multi said, as the group started walking back up the stairs. "My dad has one like it. He's a real tool buff. This will definitely pop that balloon that's tied to that key in that fish tank."

"But there's still a problem," Coiley said. "How do we sink that fish and raise that balloon?"

"Maybe we'll find out how once we get that bridge off the conveyer belt," Danalleah said. "And speaking of bridges, Multi."

"Right," Multi said, handing Danalleah the awl for the time being. Then he duplicated himself forward to bridge the gab between the towers. Once they were across, they made their way back to the factory, and into the control room. Coiley put the button in it's spot, and began pushing them.

"We need to get the hook to catch the bridge," he said. "Then we'll just pull the lever to lift it."

Coiley pushed the buttons to maneuver the hook in position to catch the bridge. Once he got it, he pulled the lever, and the bridge was lifted from the belt. Once the bridge was lifted, the belt started running, and a strange mental object came out.

"We'd better check that out," Multi said, and the group ran down to the belt to see what in the world this thing was.

"Looks like a metal glove . . . . . or _some_thing!" Danalleah shouted.

"Wait a minute, I've got an idea!" Coiley shouted. "See these nuts? We can use them to sink that weird fish in the fish tank, pop the balloon with the awl, and get the key to the door in the other tower! All we need is a wrench!"

"Here's one," Multi said, snatching a nearby wrench laying on the floor. Coiley took it from him, and began unscrewing the nuts. While he did that, Multi picked up a bicycle chain laying nearby.

"I'm going to go attach this to the cycling puppet out there," he said. "I can't bridge that gap every time we need to go back and forth between towers. It'll wear me out."

"Good idea, Multi," Danalleah said, as Coiley handed her the last of the nuts.

"Hey, look," Coiley said. "Another door."

"Locked, and there's no keyhole, either," Multi said, trying to open it. Then he noticed some sort of hole on the door. "Looks like something's missing here."

"And whatever's missing might unlock the door," Danalleah said.

"We'll investigate it later," Multi said. "To the tank!"

"Okay, gang, let's go fishin'!" Coiley shouted, and our heroes went back down the hall to that weird fish tank and that even weirder mechanical fish.

"Ugh, that thing freaks me out!" Danalleah shouted, backing away from the tank.

"So how do we do this?" Multi asked.

"Here's an opening," Coiley said. "I think we put the nuts in here."

"Then what?" Danalleah asked, handing the nuts to Coiley.

"Well . . . . maybe push the big red button," Coiley suggested.

"It's worth a try," Multi said. "Lock and load, Coiley."

"Roger, Multi!" Coiley shouted, and he loaded the nuts into the opening in the tank. The minute he did, the light bulb attached to the mechanical fish lit up, a bell was heard, and the fish swam toward an opening, and opened and closed it's mouth as if it were feeding.

"Oh, I get it!" Multi shouted. "Push the button when you see the bulb light up, Coiley!"

"Right!" Coiley shouted. The bulb lit and the bell chimed, and Coiley pushed the button. One of the nuts fell through the opening, and the fish grabbed it. Coiley had to "feed" it a couple more times before the balloon reached another opening. Multi took the awl, and stuck it into the other opening, popping the balloon, and releasing the key.

"Got it!" Multi shouted, grabbing the key. "Let's move!"

The group ran back out to the balcony, and Multi attached the bicycle chain to the puppet there. It began pedaling, and a bridge of sorts appeared between the two towers. The foursome ran across, went down the steps, and Multi unlocked the door.

"_Now_ where are we?" Multi asked, looking around the room, which was filled with iron objects, and a huge stove of sorts, as well as another puppet.

"Looks like a weapon room," Danalleah said. "An armory . . . . I think that's what it's called."

"Looks more like the ol' village smithy to me," Coiley said, and he bounced over to the puppet. "A wind up doll. It probably melts metal into this bucket, and then it drains into this mold."

"Hmmm," Multi said, picking up a wooden disc. "The Puppet Master's logo. I bet this goes to that locked door back in the factory."

"We'll go back and check it out once we're finished in here," Coiley said. "I think we should stick together on this. If we split up in this creepy place, we'll just be asking for trouble."

The others agreed and they began searching around the room.

"Hey, look at this," Danalleah said. "I found a mask."

"Wonder where it goes?" Coiley asked.

"Beats me," Multi said. "Let's get back to the factory. I'm dying to see what's on the other side of that door."

"Oh, Multi, did you _have_ to say dying?" Danalleah groaned.

"Sorry," Multi said, a bit sheepishly. And once again, the foursome made their way back to the factory. Multi's hunch was right, though. That wooden disc with the Puppet Master's logo on it fit the hole in the door perfectly, and it unlocked. The foursome looked inside and saw several heads.

"Eeek!" Danalleah shrieked.

"It's okay, Danalleah, they're just doll heads," Coiley said.

"I feel like I'm in an episode of _The Twilight Zone_," Danalleah said. "Or one of those late night horror shows Fluey's always watching."

"Either that, or a Stephen King novel," Coiley commented, looking at a bucket in the room. "I wonder what that weird bucket is for?"

"Well, whatever it's for, it's not gonna move," Multi said. "The rail's cracked. We need to find some bolts to fix it first."

"Come on," Danalleah said. "Let's keep moving."

"How?" Coiley asked. "The blacksmith shop or whatever it is, is a dead end."

"There's got to be a door hidden there _some_where," Multi said. "We've just got to find it."

And with that, the foursome walked back to the other tower and the smithy puppet's room. Skittles then suddenly barked, and went into her pointer bit on the floor.

"Look at this," Multi said. "Theater masks, and it looks like one's missing."

"Not anymore," Danalleah said, pulling the mask she found earlier out of her purse. She placed it in the empty spot, and, as soon as she did, the eyes of the masks began glowing, and they opened up a panel in the floor, revealing a set of stairs going downward.

"As Alice in Wonderland once said," Coiley said. "Curiouser, and curiouser."

"And creepier and creepier," Danalleah cringed.

"No time like the present, gang," Multi said.

The foursome went down the staircase and found some kind of hallway, lined with candles. There was a little room at the end of the hallway, but it was blocked off by a spider web, and the original Spider Baby.

"Ew!" Danalleah cried.

"I'm with you on that one, Danalleah," Coiley said. "What do we do?"

"That thing definitely is not going to let us pass," Multi said. "Give me the matches, Danalleah. I'll get rid of that creepy puppet and the cobweb at the same time."

"I don't think setting fire to the cobweb will destroy the Spider Baby, Multi," Coiley said.

"Trust me," Multi said, as he lit a match and tossed it onto the cobweb. As soon as he did, the cobweb shriveled up, and the Spider Baby took off running.

"Look," Danalleah said, walking toward the little room. "It's a puppet and a typewriter."

"And one of those tubes the spider babies were giving that puppet on the unicycle," Multi said.

"This puppet looks awfully familiar," Coiley said, as he touched the puppet. The minute he did, she began typing something on her typewriter, but it was out of paper.

"We'd better find some blank paper so we can read her message," Coiley said.

"There's another staircase over there," Multi said, pointing to the other side of the hallway. "Let's see where it leads."

The group went down the stairs, and found themselves in what looked like an old library. There were books all over the place. The group then began searching various parts of the room to see what they could find of use there.

"Eeesh!" Coiley shouted, as he got a look at a doll on the desk. There was a pencil stuck in it's eye, and pencil shavings in it's mouth.

"A doll's eye as a pencil sharpener," Multi commented. "Felicia, you are one sick lady."

"Hey, fellas!" Danalleah called out. "I've found what we're looking for! And that's not all I found!"

"Look at this bird," Coiley said. "It's missing his head!"

"Well, let's get this paper up to the puppet with the typewriter," Multi said. "We've _got_ to find out what's going on here!"

The group ran back up the stairs, and Danalleah loaded the paper into the typewriter. Once it was set, the puppet began typing. Coiley took the paper out, and gasped.

"Holy horrific!" he shouted.

"What is it, Coiley?" Multi asked.

"Listen to this," Coiley said, and he began to read the puppet's letter. "Hello. This is Madam Zuzu writing. Felicia has found the book of the deceased and extremely evil Lord Adrian. You must stop her and return the children's souls to their bodies! You must find the book, first. You will find the answers there."

"That tube behind the puppet!" Danalleah shouted, suddenly. "It must have Madam Zuzu's soul in it!"

"We'd better find that book!" Multi shouted. "Come on!"

The foursome went back down into the library, and began scouring shelf after shelf, looking for "the book." But they had no idea _what_ they were searching for.

"I wish that Madam Zuzu puppet was more specific!" Multi shouted. "What book does she mean?"

Suddenly, Skittles began barking, and she jumped on top of the desk with the doll pencil sharpener. Then she opened a drawer with her paws, picked up a book in her mouth, and put it on the desk.

"I think this is it, gang," Coiley said, as he opened the book. Multi and Danalleah gathered around to read it.

_ I've spent many years studying the human soul and how to use it for black magic. A soul can easily be stolen from any human, especially one that is asleep. A stolen soul may be stored in a glass jar until needed. However, if the soul is not returned to its body within three days, the soul will die. It is best to use children's souls first, as they are innocent, and their souls have more energy, though souls of adolescents, young adults, and others will work as well. Put them in my soul divider, and the light and dark will separate. When the light parts have melded together, perennial youth and beauty will be yours. You, my successor, shall finish what I've started. A special "soul crystal" fuels the device. It is the only thing that can overpower my device, therefore, I have locked it in a cave behind a huge stone near my castle. It can only be opened with four runes, which are also hidden from my foes._

"This has to have been written by Lord Adrian," Multi said.

"Look, here's a stone rune," Danalleah said. "I found another one earlier."

"Once we find the other two, we can unlock the soul crystal," Coiley said.

"Yeah, but there's a problem," Multi said. "The last page of Lord Adrian's book is missing, and it's the page that shows how to stop that machine!"

"Oh no!" Danalleah shouted.

"Come on," Multi said, closing the book. "We've _got_ to act fast and put a stop to this before it's too late!"


	8. The Search Continues

_AUTHOR'S NOTE: Just so you know, the monotony of this going back and forth between the castle rooms and stuff is actually part of the game this story is inspired by. You have to go back and forth between the rooms during the game play.

* * *

_

"Where do we go from here?" Coiley asked. "It's another dead end!"

"Maybe there's a secret door somewhere," Multi said.

"Maybe if we find that bird's missing head, a door will open," Danalleah said.

"Worth a shot," Multi said. "But, I hate to say this . . . . ."

"We're gonna have to back track _again_, aren't we?" Coiley asked.

"Yeah," Multi said, shrugging. Coiley, Danalleah, and Skittles sighed. It was about all they could do. Then, our heroes went back to the blacksmith puppet's room to start looking for clues, or anything else that could prove to be useful.

"Think maybe we can use this file?" Coiley asked.

"Why not?" Multi said. "We've been able to make use of some of the other junk we've been finding around."

"Hey, I just remembered something!" Danalleah shouted. "Well, something about that hanging bucket on the rails in the doll factory storage room, or whatever it was. I think I saw some bolts on the dungeon floor."

"Go get 'em, Skittles," Multi said. Skittles barked, saluted, and took off. Moments later, she returned with the bolts.

"Let's go!" Coiley shouted, and the group made their way back to the other tower and the doll factory.

Once they arrived, Multi took the bolts from Danalleah and put them in place. Once the track was repaired, the bucket moved backward, and dropped several doll's heads into a bin, raising an enormous cloud of dust from the bin.

"Boy!" Multi coughed. "How much dust was in there?"

"Chew!" Skittles sneezed.

"Gesundheit," Danalleah, said, picking up the puppy.

"Come on," Coiley said, as the last of the dust cleared. "Let's check it out."

The group walked over to the bin, and found dozens of broken puppet pieces, including heads, legs, arms, and the like.

"Must be the rejects," Coiley said. "Let's start looking this junk over."

The group got to work looking around, until Danalleah found something buried in the bin.

"Look, a key," she said. "I wonder if this is the key to the ol' village Smithy?"

"Only one way to find out," Multi said. "Back to the Smithy."

The group ran back to the other tower to where the blacksmith puppet was. Multi stuck the key into the puppet's keyhole, and it began pressing a set of bellows with it's foot.

"Just as I thought," Multi said. "Trained to melt metal, just like a blacksmith."

"That's not going to help us if we don't have any metal to melt," Coiley said.

"You're right," Multi sighed. "I don't know what to do now."

"Come on," Danalleah said. "We've got some more looking around to do. Let's go back outside to the front gate. Maybe there's something there."

The boys and Skittles agreed, and the foursome began to walk back to the elevator, but they stopped when they reached the main hall. There was Felicia, taking some kind of glowing jar out of the soul separator, or whatever the heck it was. Since they didn't want her to see them, they would have to wait until she left. She took the jar, and then went through a door.

"I don't like the looks of this," Multi said.

"I wonder where she's stashed Fluey now?" Coiley asked. "She wasn't carrying him around with her."

"After her!" Danalleah shouted, and she, Skittles, and the boys ran down the hallway. They found a wooden stairway, but, unfortunately, they had been sabotaged.

"I guess Felicia wasn't taking chances," Coiley said. "She must have figured, since she blocked us off from the other tower, we'd have no choice but to double back here, and she figured we'd eventually find this part of the hallway."

"I don't think we ought to climb it," Multi said. "There's no way it'll hold without some support. And I don't think our powers will get us all the way up there, either. Felicia might hear us use them."

"Hey, fellas!" Danalleah shouted. "Look what I found! I think it's part of the missing page from Lord Adrian's diary!"

"Great!" Multi shouted. "Let's take it back to the library and find out! We'll look for something to support the steps later."

"Wait a minute, look up there," Coiley said. "Why's that bucket just hanging there?"

"I wonder what's in it?" Danalleah asked. Coiley then sprang up and got a look.

"Just what we need!" Coiley shouted. "Scrap iron! We can melt it, and use it in that weird mold we found in the puppet smithy's room!"

"Can you get it down, Coiley?" Multi asked.

"Unfortunately, no," Coiley said. "It's hanging by a chain."

"I'll take care of that," Danalleah said, taking the file out of her purse. "Grab the bucket, Coiley. We don't want to draw Senorita Psycho's attention if it falls!"

"Right!" Coiley said, grabbing the bucket, as Danalleah began sawing at the chain with the file. It broke, and Coiley was able to bring it down. He also put the chain in the bucket as well.

"Back to the smithy!" Multi shouted.

"Rally ho!" the boys shouted in unison.

The foursome ran off down the hallways to the other tower. Once they reached the smithy puppet, Coiley loaded the metal into the bucket.

"What exactly are we doing?" Danalleah asked.

"We're gonna melt this scrap iron into this mold here," Coiley said. "I think it's used to make weapons or something."

"But what kind?" Danalleah asked, picking up Skittles, and holding the puppy tightly. Skittles didn't mind. She knew Danalleah was worried about Fluey.

"We'll have to wait and see," Multi said. "Let's hit it, Coiley. Stand back, Danalleah."

Danalleah nodded, and took a couple of steps back. Multi and Coiley loaded the scrap metal into the bucket. Then Multi turned the key on the smithy puppet to wind it up, so it would start pumping the bellows. It did, and the stove, or whatever it was, began heating up, melting the scrap iron. The molten metal then flowed out of a spout, and down a chute into the mold. Moments later, when the boys were sure the mold was ready (and adequately cooled off), they lifted the lid. Inside was a canon.

"Boy, we ought to have a blast with this!" Coiley said.

"Leave the rotten puns to Fluey, Coiley," Multi said. "But this canon is no good without a fuse."

"I saw something that looked like a candlewick in the store room of the factory," Coiley said. "If we had a pair of scissors, we could cut some from the canon."

"Well, I can't conjure up any," Danalleah said, using her magic to shrink the canon for the time being, so she could carry it in her purse. "My magic's already running low on us due to my resizing things so we can carry them easier."

"I'm sure we'll find some somewhere," Coiley said. "Now what do we do?"

"Back to the library to see if the page we found matches the one in Lord Adrian's book," Multi said.

And with that, our heroes left the smithy (for the time being), and went down the secret stairs toward the library. Multi took the torn page out of his pocket, and fit it into the book.

"It's a match, all right," he said. "Unfortunately, there's still a piece missing."

"And time's running out, too," Danalleah said. "We've _got _ to find the other piece of the page, and those other two runes."

"We will, Danalleah, don't worry," Coiley said.

"I'm sorry," Danalleah said, and tears began forming in her eyes. "I'm just so worried about Fluey. Where did that awful girl take him now?"

"We'll find him," Multi said. "No matter what happens, Danalleah, we'll rescue him, and we'll save our sisters, and all the girls that have fallen victim to this diabolical plot. Trust us, Danalleah, Felicia _won't_ get away with it!"

Danalleah nodded, and wiped her tears, but she couldn't help but worry. Skittles jumped into her arms to give her some much needed comfort (and there's nothing like a little, warm, cuddly fuzzy animal for that purpose, in your author's opinion). The boys really couldn't blame Danalleah for starting to get nervous over Fluey's welfare. They were worried, too, and they knew how much Fluey and Danalleah were hung up over each other. Not even Multi and Shawn were that hung up on each other!

The group went back up the stairs and over to the other tower. Skittles suddenly barked, and shot out of Danalleah's arms. The teen trio followed her to the hallway with that creepy mechanical fish, and she began digging around part of an area strewn with puppets, and the like. She then turned to face her human friends, holding a pair of scissors in her mouth, and wagging her tail.

"Thatta girl, Skittles!" Multi shouted, taking the scissors from the pup.

"Oh, Skittles!" Danalleah shouted, scooping the puppy into her arms, and giving her a hug. "You're _such_ a good puppy!"

"Come on, let's get this canon finished!" Coiley shouted, and our heroes immediately made their way to the doll factory's storage room.

Once they arrived, Multi took the scissors and cut a wick off the long coil on the shelf, while Coiley, Danalleah, and Skittles looked through that bin again, just in case they missed something the first time.

"Hey, Multi, take a look at this!" Coiley shouted. "Looks like a door handle."

"I have no idea where it goes, but we'd better hold onto it, just in case," Multi said.

"There's nothing else out here that'll hold the stairs up," Danalleah said.

"We could use the canon," Coiley suggested. Multi, Danalleah, and Skittles gave him a look that clearly said, "you have _got_ to be kidding!"

"As much as I hate to say this, I think we're going to have to go back down to the ground floor, where I found that weird light," Multi said.

"This is getting frustrating," Danalleah sighed.

"We don't have any other choice," Multi said. "Let's go."

The foursome then went to the main hallway, and down the elevator. Multi took another look in that weird little niche, where he had found the lever to the elevator earlier.

"Ah ha!" he shouted. "I found the perfect thing to support the stairs. A wood beam."

Coiley and Danalleah helped Multi pull the beam out of that little hidden cache, or whatever it was, and they brought it back upstairs to the castle, setting it below the staircase. It supported the steps nicely, and they went upward. They soon found themselves on the roof of the castle.

"Look, there's another door leading to another tower," Coiley said.

"And another rune," Danalleah said. "One more, and we'll have the crystal."

"Locked," Multi said. "And I have a hunch it's locked from the inside, too."

"Sorry, Multi, I don't have any hairpins with me," Danalleah said, shrugging.

"I've got it!" Coiley shouted, bouncing over to a spot on the tower walkway. "The canon! There's a canon ball right here, and we have a fuse for it, and the matches!"

"But won't that attract Felicia's attention?" Danalleah asked.

"I don't think we have a choice," Multi said. "It might get Felicia's attention, sure, but it's the only way we can get inside. The only other option is to call in FG, and by the time she gets here, it could be too late."

Danalleah agreed, and took the canon out of her purse. She set it down, and magically enlarged it to it's regular size. Multi and Coiley set it up, attaching the fuse and loading the canon ball.

"Ready . . . ." Multi said, as Coiley aimed the cannon at the door. "Aim . . . . . fire!"

Coiley struck a match, lit the fuse, and he and the others took a couple of steps back. Finally . . . . . .

BOOM!

The canon fired and struck the door with such force, the door splintered into pieces.

"Come on!" Multi shouted. "We don't have a second to spare!"

The foursome ran into the next tower, and found a set of stairs, and a door, that was missing it's handle.

"Why am I not surprised?" Coiley asked. "Take a look at that up there. It looks like the Puppet Master's logo."

"I have the distinct feeling Felicia's been here," Multi said, taking the door handle from Danalleah. He attached it to the door, and opened it.

"Looks like a bedroom," he said, looking around the room. He and the others entered cautiously. Coiley began looking at an old safe, but it was missing it's handle.

"No way we can get inside this thing, even if we had the combination," he said.

"Well, there's good news," Multi said, pulling something out from behind a picture frame on the wall. "I think I found the last piece of that missing page from Lord Adrian's book."

"And I found an owl head," Danalleah said. "I'll bet anything it goes with the headless bird in the library. But I want to check one more thing here before we head back."

Danalleah walked over to the bed, and pulled back the bed curtains. Then she gasped, and nearly dropped the owl head.

"Fluey!" she shouted. There was Fluey, all right, laying in the bed, sleeping soundly with his hands clasped over his chest.

"Felicia's not around," Coiley said. "Let's get him out of here!"

"I don't think we should risk it," Multi said. "Felicia's bound to check in on him to make sure he's where she left him. Remember what happened the last time?"

"Oh yeah," Coiley said. "She puppetized Fluey, and left him in her room, and we decided to take him with us to reverse the puppetization, and Felicia hit the roof when she found out he wasn't where she left him."

"But do you think we should leave him here?" Danalleah asked.

"I think it's okay," Multi said. "Felicia likes him. I don't think she'd do anything to hurt him. Besides, it could mean more trouble if we tried to take Fluey with us, anyway. He's too heavy for us to carry."

"Yeah, he's just dead weight when he's asleep," Coiley said.

"All right, I guess," Danalleah said. She stroked Fluey's hair for a moment, and planted a quick kiss on his forehead. "Hang in there, Fluey. We'll be back!"

Danalleah then pulled the curtains back into position, and followed Skittles and the boys back to the library.


	9. Awakening

The first thing our heroes did when they reached the library was check Lord Adrian's book. Sure enough, the missing page fit perfectly. On the page was a drawing of a weird apparatus, with an arrow pointing to it. The caption underneath the arrow read "place crystal here." Underneath that there was a drawing of the crystal, a plus sign, a jar with a human figure inside of it, an equal sign, and the human breaking out of the jar.

"I think I get it," Multi said. "We place this crystal in this weird machine, and the stolen souls break out of something, and return to their rightful bodies."

"I think I know where the crystal is," Danalleah said. "We just need one more rune."

"What are these strange symbols drawn on the page?" Coiley asked.

"I don't know," Multi said. "Come on, let's go fix that owl and see if there's another hidden door or something."

The foursome walked over to the shelf where the headless owl stood. Multi took the head, and fastened it on the body. Nothing happened.

"Wait a minute," Danalleah said. "Look at his feathers."

"Some of those symbols are the same as in the book," Coiley said.

"Coiley, get over there and call out the symbols to us," Multi said. "We'll push them as you call them."

"Roger, Multi!" Coiley shouted, and he bounced over to the book. "Ready?"

"Ready!" Multi called.

"Okay, circle, square, circle with a dot in the middle, line, diamond, and starburst."

Multi pressed the indicated feathers as Coiley called them. Once he was finished, the owl's eyes began spinning, and a door in it's base opened.

"The final rune!" Danalleah shouted, and she grabbed it. As soon as she did, the shelf began opening.

"I knew there had to be a secret door in here," Multi said. "Come on, let's check this out!"

The foursome went through the door and found themselves in the main hallway of the castle.

"How about that, a shortcut," Coiley said.

"A shortcut's not the only thing we've found," Multi said. "Here's a combination lock. I bet it goes to the safe we found in the bedroom."

"First things first," Danalleah said. "We've found all four runes, so now it's time to get the crystal."

"I hope you know where it is," Coiley said.

"I do," Danalleah replied. "Where we crashed. There was this little cache there, but I couldn't open it. I'm pretty sure it's the hiding place Lord Adrian was talking about in that book of his."

"Then what are we waiting for?" Multi asked. "Let's go!"

The foursome then ran down the hall, rode the elevator to the ground floor, ran out of the castle, and back to the site where their balloon had crashed. Danalleah stood on her toes in order to reach the cache. Then she took the runes out of her purse, and placed them in the slots below the little door. Once they were in place, the little door opened, revealing the crystal. Coiley reached up and tried to remove it, but he couldn't.

"It's stuck!" he shouted. "How do we get it out?"

"A pickaxe would probably do it," Multi said. "But where are we gonna find one?"

"Looks like we've got to go back through the castle and search the rooms again," Coiley sighed.

There wasn't anything else the group could do, so they made their way back to the castle. After searching all the rooms they had been to before, they went upstairs to the roof. Multi and Coiley went into the bedroom while Danalleah went to the top of the stairs to see what was up there.

"Here's a pickaxe, Multi," Coiley said, as Multi moved the bed curtains out of the way for a minute.

"Fluey's still here, thank goodness," he said. "Come on, we'd better get that crystal and . . . . ."

"_AAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH_!"

That shrill scream was followed by a loud thud coming from up the stairs. Skittles went into guard dog mode immediately, she and the boys raced out of the room, thinking Danalleah might be in trouble. They found her laying in a heap at the top of the stairs.

"Hollerin' hi-fi's!" Multi shouted, as he pulled Danalleah into an upright position.

"Do you think Felicia caught her and stole her soul?" Coiley asked.

"No, no, I think she just fainted," Multi said. "Something must have scared her pretty badly. See, she's starting to come around now."

"Mmmmph . . . ." Danalleah moaned as she began regaining consciousness.

"Are you all right, Danalleah?" Coiley asked.

"The . . . . the lock . . . . on the door . . . ." Danalleah stammered. The boys looked at the door, and they could see why Danalleah was so freaked out.

"Sizzling stereos!" Multi shouted. "That lock looks like . . . . like a pair of clasped hands!"

"And it looks like a couple of fingers are missing," Coiley said, beginning to feel a little queasy.

"Ew, ew, ew, _ew_!" Danalleah cringed.

"Come on," Multi said. "Let's go get the crystal now, and worry about how to unlock _this_ one later!"

The others agreed, and ran back to the balloon crash site. Multi took the pickaxe and picked the crystal out of the stone it was stuck in.

"All yours, Danalleah," he said.

"Oooohhhh . . . . ." Danalleah said, as she picked it up. "This is a powerful crystal for sure! I can feel it."

"How can you feel power?" Coiley asked.

"It's a witch thing," Danalleah said, shrugging. "Come on! Let's get back to the castle!"

The group ran back to the castle and up to the bedroom as fast as they could. While Coiley and Multi fiddled with the safe, after sticking the lock back on it, Danalleah went to check on Fluey. She took his hand, and stroked his hair. It was about all she could do. Then she walked over to the boys.

"Have you figured out the combination yet?" she asked.

"Yeah, I just got it," Coiley said, as the safe clicked. He opened it, and took a look inside. There was half a white mask, a doll, and what appeared to be a finger.

"Oh _gross_!" Danalleah shouted.

"Yeeeesh . . . ." Coiley said, making a face. "How much you want to bet this is the missing finger from that weird lock upstairs?"

"Ugh," Multi grimaced, as he picked up the finger. "Well . . . . . I don't think we have a choice."

"Eeeeuuuwwww!" Danalleah shouted. "Please, Multi, let me stay here with Fluey. I don't think I can handle this lock, I really don't! Ooooh, it's so dis_gust_ing!"

"Well, I don't think you should be alone," Multi said, and then he turned to his puppy. "Impossi-Pup, guard dog mode!"

Skittles saluted, and barked. She wasn't going to let anyone, or anything come near Fluey and Danalleah, that was for sure. Multi and Coiley then left them in the bedroom, and ran upstairs to that ultra creepy clasped hand lock.

"Yeccchhh," Coiley groaned, as Multi slid the finger into place. Once he did, all the fingers moved.

"Aaahhh!" both he and Coiley screamed. Nervously, Coiley poked the fingers, and they moved again.

"Oooohhhh boy . . . . ." Multi said. "This is how we get in. We have to figure out the right combination so we can get those hands to unclasp."

"I think I have to agree with Danalleah," Coiley said. "This _is_ disgusting!"

Multi agreed, but there wasn't anything they could do, except poke at the fingers on the clasped hands until they found the correct combination. Once they found it, the door opened, and the boys ran inside. They saw a strange machine, as well as Felicia strapped down to a table, unconscious.

"I guess this is the soul transfer," Coiley said. "Thank goodness she's unconscious!"

"Yeah, we'd better throw this thing in reverse before she wakes up," Multi said. "Or else we're cooked!"

The boys then practically ran over to where they needed to put the crystal, but as (bad) luck would have it, the Spider Baby was sitting there, blocking the way.

"Uh oh," Coiley said. "If we don't get rid of that thing, we'll never save Fluey, or our sisters, or all the other girls' souls in time!"

"I'll get rid of it," Multi said, handing Coiley the crystal, and raising his shield.

"Take that!" he shouted, giving the Spider Baby one good and hard whack with it, which caused it to go flying across the room, right into the wall. The Spider Baby then broke into pieces due to the force of the impact.

"Come on, Coiley, we've got to hurry!" Multi shouted.

"Right!" Coiley nodded, and placed the crystal into the machine. Then the two Impossibles stood back, and waited.

In a flash of blinding blue light, the machine began to vibrate, and a large tube suddenly exploded. Several pieces of glowing blue mist filled the air, and flew out the windows. The machine was destroyed. Multi and Coiley then saw Felicia, and noticed she too began changing. Her hair was turning from black to gray, and her face became old and wrinkled.

"She's definitely showing her age now," Coiley said. "Two hundred plus, I'll bet. What should we do with her?"

"Leave her there for now," Multi said. "She's still unconscious and strapped down to this thing. I want to check down in the bedroom."

Coiley agreed, and the two Impossibles ran down the stairs. As they did, they saw the souls of thousands flutter off in various places. One fluttered directly into the castle bedroom, and the boys followed it. It flew directly into Fluey's mouth, and the minute it did, his eyes started opening. He yawned, sat up, and stretched.

"Man, what a nightmare!" he shouted, rubbing the side of his head. Suddenly, something slammed into his chest, knocking him back down on the bed. It was Skittles, and she immediately began barraging her dark-haired friend with puppy kisses.

"Okay, okay, Skittles!" Fluey shouted, laughing. "Take it easy, girl! I'm happy to see you, too! Come on, Skits, ease up, will ya?"

"Oh, Fluey, you're all right!" Danalleah shouted. Once Skittles was finished with him, Danalleah pulled him into her arms, and held him tightly, giving him the biggest kiss she could muster. Immediately, Fluey wrapped his arms around Danalleah, and held her close.

"Boy, Dani, are you ever a sight for sore eyes!" he shouted. "I was afraid I'd be stuck in that sleep forever!"

"You mean you knew what was going on?" Multi asked. "Even though you were in a coma, you knew what was happening?"

"Well, sorta," Fluey said, letting go of Danalleah. "I saw that Spider Baby of Felicia's snatch Phyllis's soul right out of her while she was asleep. I was just about to call you guys when she snuck up behind me, grabbed me, dragged me to this weird flying contraption, and tied me up. She didn't steal my soul until we got to this creepy castle. When we got here, she explained her plot as she was untying me, and I tried to make a run for it the minute I was able to, but she managed to catch me. Then she told me if I didn't cooperate, she'd steal my soul, and she tried to kiss me . . . . yeccchhh! It took a _lot_ of self-control not to punch her lights out, but I wouldn't let her near me. I pushed her off, but before I could run, she bopped me upside the head, and everything went black after that."

"Well, at least we've foiled her plans," Multi said. "Come on. She's in the upstairs room, waiting for us to take her in."

"Let's go," Coiley said, and the quintet left the bedroom and climbed up the stairs to the laboratory. When they arrived, they found Felicia was gone.

"Holy ectoplasm!" Coiley shouted. "She must've woken up and escaped!"

"Darn it!" Multi shouted, snapping his fingers. "We should've put the cuffs on her, but we figured since she was unconscious . . . . ."

"No big deal, Multi," Fluey said. "You're only human, after all. Mistakes happen. Hey, listen, fellas, switch over so we can do the quick change thing the old way. Our little Puppet Queen nabbed me before I had a chance to grab my transformer. Maybe we can still catch her."

Coiley and Multi nodded, and took their transformers out. Then they pushed the buttons on them to switch back to their rock 'n roller forms. Then, in a swirl of psychedelic colors, all three Impossibles changed to their superhero identities.

"Think you can transport us back to town, Danalleah?" Coiley asked.

"I'll try," Danalleah said, and she waved her hands in the air, over herself, the boys, and Skittles. They faded out of the castle, and faded back in on the street in front of Mrs. Fettuccine's house, by what was left of the Impossi-Mobile.

"Holy Mesopotamia!" Fluey shouted, getting a look at the car. "What the heck happened to the car _this_ time?"

"It's a long story," Coiley sighed. "But at least your spell worked, Danalleah."

"Yeah . . . ." Danalleah said, slowly, and a bit breathlessly. "But . . . . that took the . . . . . wind right out of me. I don't think . . . . I'll be able to . . . . help you guys . . . . . track down Felicia. I think . . . . I need . . . . a recharge."

Danalleah then fainted. Fluey caught her before she could hit the ground, and lifted her into his arms.

"Hey, man, I think I could get used to this!" he shouted.

"That's not funny, Fluey," Multi said. "Come on. Let's take her to Mrs. Fettuccine's."

The boys then walked up to Mrs. Fettuccine's house, and rang the bell. It opened a few minutes later, and Mrs. Fettuccine appeared, looking much more calm than she had when Coiley, Multi, and Danalleah first met her.

"Hi, Mrs. Fettuccine," Coiley said. "I hope your daughter's awake now, since we solved the mystery."

"Oh yes, she is," Mrs. Fettuccine said. "Oh, I can't thank you boys enough! I'm forever in your debt!"

"Just doing our job, ma'am," Multi said. "But we were wondering if you could do us a favor. We're not quite finished yet, and our friend, Danalleah, sort of exhausted herself getting back here to town, so we were wondering if you'd let her rest here while we finished up the case."

"Oh, certainly," Mrs. Fettuccine said. "I'll show you to the guest bedroom."

Mrs. Fettuccine led the boys down the hallway to the guest bedroom. Fluey put Danalleah down on the bed, and she started coming around.

"Oooh . . . ." she moaned. "Those big spells take a lot out of me."

"It's okay, Dani," Fluey said. "You stay here and recharge, and we'll go track down Felicia."

"And since we're going to be busy with that," Multi said, "you can call Big D and let him know what's going on. We're going to need a couple of agents to give us a lift back to Megatropolis."

"All right," Danalleah said, gripping Fluey's hand. "Good luck, guys."

"Thanks," Fluey said. Then he turned to Multi and Coiley. "Okay, fellas, let's hit it."

"Rally ho!" the Impossibles shouted in unison, and they were off to track down the Puppet Master's demented daughter.


	10. The Great Escape

The first place Skittles and the boys went looking for Felicia was that abandoned house across the street from Mrs. Fettuccine's. Multi walked up to the door, and took a good look at the lock. It was a padlock with a picture of a donkey, a spider, a chicken, and a snake on it. Next to each picture was a dial with numbers on it.

"Well, this is going to take some thought," he said, as Coiley and Fluey joined him. "I can't make heads or tails out of this lock."

"I don't think opening the door from the inside is going to help, either," Fluey said. "I can't unlock the door from the inside if there's a padlock on the outside. But this is one crazy padlock!"

"You said it," Coiley replied. "There's got to be a logical answer here somewhere. I just can't put my finger on it. Looks like we might have to do a little more legwork to . . . . ."

"That's it!" Fluey shouted suddenly. He went up to the padlock, and turned the dial next to the donkey to four, the dial next to the spider to eight, the dial next to the chicken to two, and left the dial next to the snake set to zero. The padlock then opened.

"Ta-dah!" Fluey sang. "No applause, please."

"Come on, fellas," Multi said. "We've got work to do."

The boys walked into the house, and found a desk with a broken puppet sitting at it.

"Yeah, Puppetina's definitely been here," Fluey commented. "Looks like there used to be a button on this desk."

"We'd better get searching," Multi said. "No telling what we'll find useful around here."

"Yeah, man!" Fluey shouted.

The group searched around the room for awhile. Skittles sniffed around, and then grabbed hold of the edge of the rug. Then she pulled, lifting the corner. The Impossibles had heard her little puppy grunts, and walked over.

"Good girl, Skittles!" Multi shouted, as he kneeled down to see what Skittles had dug up. It was a semi-circle with part of the Puppet Master's logo on it, as well as some kind of drawing etched into the floor.

"Looks like the instructions on fixing that puppet at the desk," Fluey said. "And it looks like we'll have to find it's head and it's arm."

"Let's look around here some more," Coiley said.

Multi and Fluey nodded, and they continued their search. Skittles began sniffing around once more, and then ran to a wall in the other corner of the room. She started pawing at the wall's floor, whining.

"What's up, girl?" Multi asked, walking over. Skittles continued pawing and whining. Multi knocked on the wall, and listened.

"A hallow echo," he said. "There must be a secret passage behind here."

"I'll betcha it's that missing button that opens it," Fluey said. "Is there a crack in the door, Multi? If there is, I could get in and open it from the inside."

"Unfortunately, no," Multi said. "We're going to have to find that button. And we're probably going to have to go on a whirlwind tour of Giocattoli. Again!"

"Hey, fellas, look what I found!" Coiley called out. Multi, Fluey, and Skittles walked over to him, and found Coiley standing beside a huge telescope.

"I wonder where that thing goes?" Fluey asked.

"Beats me," Coiley said. "But I don't think it's going to do us much good, anyway. It's missing the lens."

"Well, we'd better hang onto it," Multi said. "Like I said before, you never know what might come in handy, even if it doesn't look like anything important. Who knows? If we figure out where it goes, maybe we can use it to find Felicia."

The other two Impossibles nodded, but they decided to leave the telescope where it was for the time being (it was so big, the boys figured lugging it around would only slow them down). Then they left the old, abandoned house, and went down the street to Madam Zuzu's shop. The door was open, and the place was deserted.

"I wonder where Madam Zuzu is?" Coiley asked.

"She probably left town once her soul returned to her body," Multi said. "Not that I blame her. She tried to warn the town, but they wouldn't listen."

"Come on, let's look around," Fluey said, and immediately, he began searching the shop. The others followed. Skittles sniffed around, and picked up a trowel in her mouth. Then she brought it over to Multi, and pawed at his leg to get his attention.

"Good girl, Skittles," Multi said, picking up the trowel. "I don't know what we'll need it for, but it _could_ come in handy a little farther down the line."

"That's not all that's gonna come in handy, Multi," Fluey said, pulling something out from underneath a chair. It was a puppet's arm, and hand.

"No pun intended," Fluey said. Both Coiley and Multi groaned.

"Come on, fellas," Coiley said. "Let's check out the toy shop."

The Impossibles left Madam Zuzu's and started for the toy shop, when Skittles suddenly turned, and ran for a potted plant. She began pawing at it, and digging through it.

"Whoa, Skittles, hold it a minute!" Multi shouted, picking up his puppy.

"She must think there's a bone in there or something," Fluey commented.

"She might be onto something, though," Coiley said. "This potted plant looks suspiciously freshly planted. And this place is vacant. Hand me that trowel."

Multi handed Coiley the trowel, and he began digging in the pot. Finally, he unearthed what looked like a lever.

"I wonder where _that_ goes," Multi said.

"Better hang onto it so we can find out," Coiley said. "Onto the toy shop."

Multi and Fluey agreed. Then the boys walked down the street to the toy shop, and immediately began investigating, searching the shop for anything, whether it be a clue, or a tool, or anything else they would find useful in aiding their search for Felicia.

"Hey, look in this display case," Fluey said, reaching in through the broken glass, and pulling out a puppet's head. "This guy shoulda quit while he was ahead. Ha, ha!"

Both Multi and Coiley groaned loudly at Fluey's bad pun.

"Good to have you back, Fluey," Coiley said. "Wisecracks and all."

"Other than the puppet head, I don't see anything else we can use here," Multi said. "Let's keep moving."

The Impossibles left the toy shop, and stood there for a moment or so, trying to figure out where to go next. Fluey looked down the street for a moment.

"Anything down there, fellas?" he asked.

"Just the spot where we got the balloon that took us to the castle," Multi said. "And before you say anything, Fluey, we couldn't take it back once we stopped Felicia because it had been destroyed."

"Gotcha," Fluey said. "But maybe there's something over there that might help us find that psycho chick."

Multi and Coiley couldn't argue with that one, so they walked over, and looked around. It was pretty empty, since the balloon was gone. They looked around until Fluey started staring up at a lamp post.

"I think there's something in there, fellas," he said. He opened the casing of the post, and found a lit candle in there.

"A candle?" he said. "Sheesh, doesn't this town have _any_ electricity?"

"Is there anything else in there, Fluey?" Coiley asked.

"Yeah, something behind this candle," Fluey said. He then took a deep breath, and blew out the candle. Then he reached his hand in, and pulled out a file.

"Like I said," Multi said, shrugging. "You never know when something like that could come in handy."

"I wonder if Madam Zuzu left these things for us in these hiding places so Felicia wouldn't find them?" Coiley asked.

"She could have," Multi said. "Come on, we've still got some searching to do."

The boys were on their way back to Madam Zuzu's shop when they passed an alley between Madam Zuzu's and Mr. Linguine's shops. Coiley stopped for a moment, and stared at it.

"Hey, Multi," he said. "Wasn't this street blocked off earlier?"

"Yeah, now that you mention it, it was," Multi said. "But it looks like it's open now. Let's check this out."

The trio walked down the alley, and looked around. It was pretty empty, except for a locked door at the end of it.

"Think you can go through that keyhole, Coiley?" Multi asked.

"No problem," Coiley said. "Rally ho!"

Coiley was about to go through, when he suddenly crashed into the door.

"Ouch!" he shouted. "Darn it, something's blocking the hole!"

"We've got to find the key to this one," Fluey said. "There isn't anything I can slip into. No cracks in the door, and if Coiley can't get through the keyhole, neither can I."

"But where would it be?" Multi asked.

Fluey shrugged, and Skittles began barking. The boys looked at her, and then they looked in the direction of where Skittles was looking. She happened to be barking at something on the roof of one of the old houses.

"There's nothing up there, Skittles," Coiley said.

"Maybe not up," Fluey said. "But my intuition is telling me there's something down. As in down the chimney. I'll be back in a flash, fellas. Rally ho ho!"

Fluey then partially converted into his fluid form, flew up to the roof, and down the chimney. Multi picked up Skittles and scratched her head, wondering what in the world he was thinking.

"Hey, Multi!" Coiley called from the alley. "I think I found that missing button in that old house."

"Good work, Coiley," Multi said. "And since we've got the puppet's head and arm, we can go back and see what happens when that button is pushed. We just have to wait until Fluey gets back, and . . . ."

No sooner than had Multi said that, Fluey came back up the chimney, partially converted. Once he reached the ground, he converted back into his solid form.

"Did you find anything?" Multi asked.

"Sure did," Fluey said. "A key. And I'll bet anything it goes to that door in the alley."

"Let's find out," Multi said, and the boys went back to the alley.

Coiley took the key, stuck it in the keyhole, and turned it. It opened a small panel, and inside were a couple of gears.

"No wonder I couldn't get through the keyhole," Coiley said. "These gears probably open the door, but we've got to get them moving first."

"What say we help it along?" Multi asked, as he began turning the larger of the two gears with his finger, as if he were winding something up. Once he let go, the gear began turning in the other direction, causing the smaller gear to begin turning as well. As soon as both gears were turning, the door slowly opened. The boys ran inside, and discovered a flight of stairs, leading upward, right to a locked iron gate.

"Well, now what?" Multi asked.

"I'll look into this," Fluey said, and he went into a full conversion to get inside. "Rally ho ho!"

Fluey slipped through the bars of the gate, and went inside the room. It didn't look like much.

"See anything, Fluey?" Coiley asked.

"Not much," Fluey said, picking up something from a shelf. "Just the other half of the Puppet Master's logo, and a telescope stand. We'd better figure out how to open that gate so we can fix the telescope. We definitely can't fit it through the bars!"

"What about that lever thing we found in the potted plant by Madam Zuzu's?" Coiley asked. "Look, here's a slot for it."

"Good idea, Coiley," Multi said, taking out the lever and attaching it to the slot in the wall. It was a perfect fit. Once it was in, the redhead pulled it, and the gate began raising.

"Okay," Multi said. "Back to that abandoned house. We need to get the telescope."

"Rally ho!" the boys shouted, and they ran back to the old house.

Once they arrived, Multi duplicated himself in order to lift that huge telescope. Then, the boys went back to the building in the alley, and took the telescope upstairs, fixing it to the stand.

"Uh oh," Fluey said. "I just noticed something. Not only is this thing missing the lens, it's also missing the adjustment disc, or whatever the heck it's called."

"Something's telling me we'll find the missing pieces in that weird abandoned house," Multi said. "But we have to go back there anyway, to fix the door to that secret passage. I'm _sure_ there's one in that wall!"

The other two Impossibles agreed, and they ran back to the abandoned house. Multi and Skittles went to the wall in question, and knocked on it a couple of times. He also knocked on some of the other walls, in case the trigger was hidden there or something. Coiley and Fluey got to work attaching the button back to the desk, as well as repairing the puppet. Once they got the puppet's head and arm re-attached, it came to life, and pushed the button on the desk. The moment the button was pushed, the wall slid open.

"I knew it!" Multi shouted. "Come on, fellas!"

Skittles and the boys raced through the passage, only to find themselves at a dead end. There was a hole in the center of the wall that looked like it would hold something.

"You thinking what I'm thinking, Coiley?" Multi asked.

"I'm thinking it," Coiley nodded. "Hand me that half of the Puppet Master's logo you found, Fluey."

Fluey handed Coiley the item, and then Coiley and Multi put both the pieces into the opening in the door. The door then slowly slid open, revealing another door, but this one had a set of pipes, and hot air was blasting out of one of them.

"Methinks Puppetina set this up," Fluey said. "She's probably hiding in this room."

"Methinks you're right," Multi said. "We'd better stop the air flow here."

"How do we do that?" Coiley asked.

"How else?" Fluey asked, picking up a wrench from the floor. Then he began twisting it on the pipes, readjusting them, and connecting all of them so there was nowhere for the hot air to go, except through one end of the pipe to the other. And once the pipes were fix, a bell sounded, a green light suddenly flipped on, and the door opened.

"Voila," Fluey said, twirling the wrench like it was a gun. "The fasted draw in the wrench . . . . . I mean west."

"Enough with those lousy puns of yours, already," Multi groaned. "We've got more important work to do."

Fluey merely shrugged, and he and the others walked into this new room.

"Looks like a wine cellar," Coiley said, looking around.

"Yeah, but all of the casks are empty," Fluey said, turning the taps on the barrels.

"Hey, fellas!" Multi called from a corner of the room. He was holding up a disc of some sort. "I think I found the telescope adjuster . . . . or whatever it's called."

"Now all we have to do is find the lens, and . . . ." Coiley started, but he was interrupted by Skittles barking. She was standing by a wall, and jumping upward toward a vent close to the ceiling.

"I think Skittles found it," Multi said. Then he duplicated himself upward to take a look in the vent.

"Yep, it's in there all right," Multi said. "But I can't get my hand in there to get it out. The slots on this vent are too thin."

"I could probably get in," Fluey said, going into a partial conversion to look into this himself. "The trouble is getting that lens out. If I went in there, it'd have to be a full conversion. there's not enough room in there for a partial. And it would be difficult to maneuver that lens to slide between the slots. I'm guessing Felicia slid it through on it's side, and maybe used a stick or something to reposition it so nobody could reach it."

"So how do we get it out?" Coiley asked. The boys stood there thinking for a moment or so, until Fluey snapped his fingers.

"I've got it!" he shouted, pulling out the file he found from the lamp post. "This should saw the bars on the vent no problem!"

Fluey began sawing the vent with the file until he created a large enough opening to retrieve the telescope lens. Then the boys raced out of the cellar, through the abandoned house, and back to the house in the alley. They immediately began repairing the telescope. Once everything was in place, Coiley and Multi opened the windows while Fluey looked through the telescope, trying to spot the Impossibles' target.

"I don't see much of anything yet, fellas," he said. "But I'm sure we'll . . . . . . wait a minute! There she is!"

"Where?" Coiley asked.

"She's still at the castle," Fluey said. "And she's in that flying contraption of hers . . . . and she's got that thing anchored to the castle with chains . . . . . wait a minute . . . . . oh, _darn_ it! She just cut the chains loose and she's flying the coop!"

"We'll never be able to catch up to her without the Impossi-Jet," Multi sighed. "Looks like she got away again."

"Come on," Coiley sighed. "We'd better head back."

Multi and Fluey agreed, and the foursome went back to Mrs. Fettucine's house. They found Danalleah coming out of the house as they arrived.

"What happened?" she asked.

"She flew off in that flying thing of hers," Fluey said. "There's no way we can go after it without the Impossi-Jet."

"Well, don't look at me, fellas," Danalleah said, shrugging. "My magic's not fully recharged yet. I called Big D after you guys left, and he said he'd send a helicopter for us. It should be here soon. I told them to land where the balloon was."

The group then walked down the street toward the meeting place. There wasn't much they _could_ do about Felicia now. Five minutes later, the group heard the sound of helicopter blades, and the wind began picking up. The group looked up and saw a large helicopter with the SSHQ logo on it, coming down. The minute it landed, the side door opened, and Big D jumped out, and immediately ran over to the quintet. Without wasting any time, he wrapped his arms around his grandson, and held him close.

"Thank heavens you're all right, Fluid," he said. "I was worried sick about you!"

"Sorry, chief, but I couldn't help it," Fluey said, shrugging.

"I know, I know," Big D replied. "I suspected it was foul play when I found your transformer still at the house. Believe me, this was one of the _worst_ situations I've had to go through, mostly because it was both you, _and_ your sister. Your sister in that coma, you vanishing without a trace . . . . . I _swear_ I was about to have a heart attack before your girlfriend called!"

"Yeah, speaking of Phyllis, chief," Fluey said. "Is she . . . ."

"She's fine," Big D said. "I don't know what you boys did, but Phyllis is awake. I also called Agent Coil's parents, and Agent Multi's parents. You boys will be glad to know your sisters have awakened, as well as anyone else who was in that odd coma. I sympathized with Agent Phelps. He was practically beside himself throughout that entire ordeal."

The others could definitely understand that. Dr. Phelps had a nine-year-old daughter, and she, too, had succumbed to the Puppet Master's daughter's evil plot.

"Have you boys apprehended the criminal?" Big D asked.

"Unfortunately, no," Coiley said. "She got away again."

"Again?" Big D asked.

"Yeah, it was the same girl that lured Phyllis, Shawn, and the rest of the girls to a phony modeling agency in Austria," Multi said.

"You remember, chief, the one that was turning all these girls into puppets?" Fluey said. "Only she wasn't puppetizing anybody, except maybe this fortune teller, Madam Zuzu . . . . . see, she sent those dolls to the toy store in Megatropolis, except the dolls were really her mechanical Spider Babies . . . . . remember, we told you about that spider puppet of hers the last time we encountered her? Anyway, these Spider Babies were stealing the souls out of the girls when they were asleep, and they brought them to this really creepy castle, and she was transferring them into her body so she could get eternal youth and beauty."

"Mm hmm," Big D said, giving Fluey a Look. "When are you going to stop watching those late night horror movies, young man?"

"Come on, chief, don't you believe us?" Fluey asked. "It really _did_ happen!"

"I believe the same person responsible for the events in Austria is responsible for this," Big D said. "What I _don't_ believe is all the talk about this . . . . . puppetizing or whatever you call it, or mechanical spider things stealing a person's soul. I'm sorry, but it just sounds too farfetched for me Much like those cheap horror films you seem to enjoy so much."

"Well, even though she escaped, boss," Multi went on, "we _did_ destroy the machine she was using, and I don't think she'll be coming back any time soon."

"Yeah, just like last time," Coiley said. "We'll just have to wait and see."

"Right," Big D said. "But for right now, I'm considering this case closed."

The others had to agree on that one. Then they boarded the SSHQ helicopter and took off for Megatropolis. They weren't going to worry about Felicia until she tried something again. For right now, all the Impossibles wanted to do was get home, and get some sleep. It had been a long couple of days.

The End

_

* * *

AUTHOR'S NOTE: Yes, that's right. The second "PuppetShow" game ended on a cliff hanger. Or at least the bonus level in the Collector's Edition ended with a "To Be Continued" (the standard edition did not have this bonus level). I have no idea if there are plans for a third installment or not, though. But, as I like to say, nothing is impossible!_


End file.
